Begum Rokeya

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (Bengali: রোকেয়া সাখাওয়াত হোসেন; 9 December 1880 – 9 December 1932), commonly known as Begum Rokeya, was a prominent Bengali feminist thinker, writer, educator, professor, teacher, writer and women empowerment and political activist for Muslim girls from East Bengal, undivided Bengal in present-day Bangladesh. She is widely regarded as a pioneer of women's liberation in South Asia. Rokeya is considered as the pioneer feminist of Bengal . She advocated for men and women to be treated equally as rational beings, noting that the lack of education for women was responsible for their inferior economic position. Her major works include Matichur (A String of Sweet Pearls, 1904 and 1922), a collection of essays in two volumes expressing her feminist thoughts; Sultana's Dream (1908), a feminist science fiction novella set in Ladyland ruled by women; Padmarag ("Essence of the Lotus", 1924) depicting the difficulties faced by Bengali wives; and Abarodhbasini (The Confined Women, 1931), a spirited attack on the extreme forms of purdah that endangered women's lives and self-image.