Moving Beyond Gender Codes: The Upside-Down World of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

Abstract

The paper aims to study Rokeya's Sakhawat Hossain’s contribution as a writer and social reformer and how she tried to foreground the agency of women. The focus of the study is on Rokeya's emancipatory ideals and how her works deal with the issues related to gender and how women activism and education opened up new vistas for social and political reforms in South Asia. Though the percentage of women education has increased, they remain second class citizens in today’s enlightened and technologically advanced world. In her works she talks about the essence of the economic freedom of women, importance of education especially the vocation-based education, socioeconomic development and raising the status of women. She proposed plans and programs and suggested the right measures for women’s emancipation. Lessons learned from her initiatives are still relevant today and can be applied to address the contemporary issues reflected in the day to day life of women. The present study will be done with the help of the analysis of Rokeya’s Sultana's Dream and Padmarag.