Indian Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies ISSN: 2321-8274 Burqa and the Begum: Strategic Adoption of Islam in Rokeya’s Later Writings Durdana Matin Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh Page | 35 Abstract: Evidence can be found in the life and works of Begum Rokeya, a major cultural figure in the Indian subcontinent, to support the popular notion that she pioneered and strongly advocated the importance of the advancement of female education in Bengal. She encountered certain issues in her time that would be recognized by feminists today as their rallying points too. They would also perceive in her response to those issues a clear feminist edge. However, one is likely to notice a marked change in her position from intransigence in her early life to pacifism later. Both conservatives and liberals lay claim to her as their champion though the idealistic and pacifist image of her carved by the conservatives has been established as her true representation and more successfully instilled in the popular psyche ever since her death. On the other hand, those who depict her as belligerent and unapologetic have not been able to make a strong case for this image as Rokeya did not stick to this polemical position for too long. Consequently, the popular version of Rokeya as a pious, modest and God-fearing person concerned with the deplorable condition of women in her community in colonial Bengal has stuck. However, even this interpretation of Rokeya has its limitations. This paper attempts to explore the true identity of Rokeya in the light of her life and works contrary to the one constructed by the prevailing popular discourse. Volume 5, Number 1 June,2019 https://ijclts.wordpress.com/ Indian Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies ISSN: 2321-8274 Begum Rokeya‟s life and works are mostly dedicated to the issues of gender inequality and the marginalisation of women. Her writings express a deep concern with finding a way out for this marginalised multitude of human beings whose miseries, she would think, resulted from the opportunities they were deprived of under the patriarchal family and Page | 36 social systems. She understood that these institutions were entrenched in a mindset nurtured for ages and thereby fortified and strengthened further by the male interpretation of religion in which women figured as spiritually vulnerable and potential sinners. Begum Rokeya‟s object was to disabuse the society of the false notion about women and expose their human potential. She knew that even women themselves were not ready for their freedom if it were given to them. Hence her intentions were basically twofold: to wean women away from superstition and enlighten their mind with reason and to persuade the forbidding patriarchs of the good that would come of female freedom. Unlike her renowned counterparts in the West, Begum Rokeya combined her intellectual and literary works with her practical experiences of working for gender equality on the ground. The fact that she was more of an activist than a writer made her literary aspiration take a back seat and give way to her social activism. In spite of that she has left behind a good number of literary works, which include two anthologies, short stories, novel, essays, letters as well as many other works not collected and published during her lifetime. After her maiden work “Pipasha (Thirst),” published in 1902, Begum Rokeya‟s campaign for women‟s rights began in 1903 with the publication of her essay “Alangkar na Badge of Slavery (Ornaments or Badge of Slavery?”—a severe attack mainly on patriarchy and religion. Later in 1904 that essay was published again with a changed title “Amader Abanati (Our Degradation)”. Rokeya argues that women‟s oppression should be understood as a direct consequence of unfair, male-centric “social injunctions” embodied in all religions, and not merely as a by-product of the misplaced conservatism of a few orthodox mullahs (Sarkar Volume 5, Number 1 June,2019 https://ijclts.wordpress.com/ Indian Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies ISSN: 2321-8274 13). The ill-treatment of women in the society was prompted by the misogyny inherent in all religions which actually reflected the mindset of males during that time. Born and raised in an orthodox Muslim family of landed aristocracy, Rokeya had experienced all types of oppression from gender discrimination since her childhood and could very well discern from Page | 37 the beginning the true nature of patriarchy and its mechanism. In an essay published in 1904, when she was only twenty four, she wrote, “In order to keep us in the dark ... men have preached the scriptures as God‟s commandments. As a matter of fact, these scriptures are nothing but the rules and regulations made by men” (qtd. in Sabak). Simone De Beauvoir after almost four decades also took a view very similar to Begum Rokeya‟s; like her she also thought that men control religion and God to legitimize their domination of women. De Beauvoir said that in the three major religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, man is the master by divine right; so rebellion against this domination was akin to that against God (621). The lines quoted above apparently reflect Rokeya‟s strong desire to do away with religion which, in her opinion, serves only patriarchy; as a matter of fact they were not so much against religion as against patriarchy, showing patriarchy‟s clever manipulation of God and organized religion against women. Rokeya identified religion as a major tool of patriarchy against women‟s progress when she wrote in “Amader Abanati (Our Degradation),” “Where the bond of religion is slack ... women are in a state as advanced as men.... I have to say that ultimately „religion‟ has strengthened the bonds of our enslavement…” (Quadir 11-12). She implied that the influence of religion was much stronger in the Indian subcontinent due to the lack of education among its populace. However, at the time of writing those lines, Rokeya did not know that they would create so much repercussion in the society. Not only did she implicate all religions in the oppression of women, but she also stripped the Holy Scriptures off their divine origin by saying that they were written by men. She also argued that had they been written by female sages, the world would have seen Volume 5, Number 1 June,2019 https://ijclts.wordpress.com/ Indian Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies ISSN: 2321-8274 different versions of those scriptures (qtd. in Hasan 14). The fact that people of the Indian subcontinent were more theocentric than that of Europe and America made Rokeya‟s frontal attack on religion look more precarious. Now we know in hindsight that the adverse reaction of the Hindu and Muslim readers at the anti-religious lines was quite inevitable. As Rokeya Page | 38 did not expect such strong disapproval and unfavorable criticism, she became somewhat defensive. The essay “Alangkar na Badge of Slavery? (Ornament or Badge of Slavery?)” was reprinted in Motichur, the first anthology of her works the following year with its title changed from “Amader Abanati (Our Degradation)” to “Streejatir Abanati (The Degradation of Women)” and with the provocative paragraphs removed. However, in spite of the revision, there remained residues here and there, which showed that Rokeya‟s view on religion did not really change. For example, in the revised version there are still lines like, “What we learn from our own experiences and those of others is the real religious teaching. Sometimes, lessons from the simple experiences of life are superior to bookish knowledge” (11). In the texts following her famous or infamous essay indicting religion, she would continue to focus on the issues of gender discrimination and women‟s rights with a conscious effort to overlook the complicity of religion in them. Having apprehended the danger of meddling with religion in a theocentric country like India, she chose a middle ground discarding the old one. So we can divide Begum Rokeya‟s life into two phases: in the first one, she was naively bold and forthright, whereas in the second one, she became calculative and mature, could hide under an artificially constructed façade. In her writings of the latter phase she neither lost any of her incendiaries nor the sight of her destination, only the path to it had gone askew. She felt the need to create a new identity for herself in order to fight the old values from within the system. It is because of the difference between the two phases, Rokeya appears self- contradictory and somewhat ambivalent to her readers. In the latter phase her language Volume 5, Number 1 June,2019 https://ijclts.wordpress.com/ Indian Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies ISSN: 2321-8274 became more layered and codified; however only in her fictions did she take the freedom to breathe somewhat more freely. In “Streejatir Abanati (Degradation of Women),” the modified version of her iconoclastic essay, “Amader Abanati (Our Degradation),” she criticized women‟s agency in Page | 39 strengthening the reign of patriarchy and worsening their own condition. Rokeya understood that women‟s dependence on men was a threat to their individuality. They do not engage in any meaningful activity and spend their time doing trifles. So she showed that along with men, women, too, were responsible for their own subordination to a great extent. Rokeya said, “Slowly, even our minds have become enslaved. Being serfs for centuries, we have now become used to our serfdom” (7). Having been subjugated by men for long, women became habituated to this and gradually accepted it as a natural situation.