FEMINIST IDEAS OF BEGUM ROKEYA AND ITS HOLISTIC EXPLANATION Md. Reazul Haque1 Harunur Rashid2 Abstract Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, an instrumental feminist of Indian subcontinent who firstly affirmed women empowerment in the subcontinent and identified the causes of women downfall when patriarchy only allowed women to live as a domestic service provider and caregiver. Footing on the idea of justice and equity, Rokeya used radical, liberal and Marxist feminist ideas to explain exploitation by the patriarchy. She further argued that poverty for women arose firstly from inheritance discrimination and social de-recognition which created a million hindrances extending injustice and discrimination of wealth and self-esteem before and after marriage life. For making rationale of her work on the moral ground of social justice, Rokeya‟s ideas are classified, in this paper, into four basic matrix of social justice including redistribution, recognition, affirmation, and transformation like Fraser‟s Idea of social justice. It implies that Rokeya emphasized using different feminist approaches depending on the socio-economic structure of society to break social restriction for removing discrimination through justice with recognition in social context and redistribution of inheritance. Rokeya‟s suggestion women must have education to challenge this social discrimination and for economic employment to reflect capability building. Having emphasized radical, liberal and Marxist feminist idea, for the recognition of society in public space and redistribution of inheritance and ownership rights in all spheres of social construction, Rokeya urged that economic empowerment with education can lead women to justice. Therefore, only citing her radical or liberal or Marxist feminist ideas will be a partial explanation of Rokeya's work, as her struggle for justice with different feminist perspective centralizes on capability building through economic empowerment. Keywords: Rokeya, Feminism, Recognition, Redistribution, Social Justice, Capability and Roekya‟s Social Justice. 1 Md. Reazul Haque PhD is Professor, Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka. Email: [email protected] 2 Harunur Rashid is Researcher & Assistant Secretary, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Social Science Review [The Dhaka University Studies, Part-D], Vol. 35, No. 2, December 2018 2 Haque and Rashid Introduction Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain as an instrumental feminist thinker urged that economic empowerment with education can pave the way for social justice and capability development. She used different feminist tools at different times for establishing justice through ensuring equal rights. The similarity of Rokeya‟s writing with liberal, radical and Marxist feminist thinking further intensifies the confusion and raises the question-of specifying the feminist thought of Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. These thoughts establish the idea of gender equality, social discrimination, economic empowerment with education and self-respect through social recognition. Finally, it puts emphasis on economically self-dependent women with just redistribution of wealth and inheritance rights. For all of these human rights, she centralized her ideas on capability building where agency and wellbeing got importance through economic empowerment and self-consciousness. Therefore, sometimes education, as a core concept of Human Development, became the cornerstone of solution in her writing 'Subeh Sadik' essay. While emphasizing equal rights for women in her work entitled 'God Gives Man Robs', she became a spiritual person and defined enslaved tendency being the basic cause behind-women- backwardness. Sometimes, she demanded equity for human development in 'Shu Grihini' (Best Homemakers) in her book, „Motichur‟ identifying religious, cultural, and social confinement as hindrances to women freedom. Similarly, she also explored that patriarchal domination caused discrimination towards women and so her struggle centralized on social justice. Along with these, she identified that poverty of women arose firstly from inheritance- related discrimination and then, social de-recognition and lack of redistribution of wealth extended injustice and discrimination of wealth and self-esteem. Given the fact, most of the writers become interested in partial explanation of Rokeya‟s writing and not centralization of her ideas on the ground of women emancipation from all sorts of exploitation and social justice. Therefore, the authors compares idea of social justice by Fraser, N. (1997) with Roekya‟s idea of social justice, as the objective of Rokeya‟s writing in overall, include struggle against exploitation, marginalization, deprivation, and breaking tools of all sort of injustice against women in a society. Rokeya‟s and Frasers‟ politics of recognition are rooted in social patterns of representation, cultural domination, and economic employment. Both had the same objectives and the social justice can tune out the discrimination against women by ensuring women‟s social status and equal rights, for which Rokeya had devoted her whole life. Feminist Ideas of Begum Rokeya and Its Holistic Explanation 3 Methodology of the Study Based on the secondary literature from the journal article, newspaper report & article and forth-nightly Bengali publication, the discrete view of different writers about Rokeya feminist ideas are integrated. Then to prepare a holistic view of explanation for Rokeya‟s Feminist idea, the authors identified the liberal, radical and Marxist argument against patriarchal construction in Rokeya‟s writing. At the second stage, comparing her idea with Fraser‟s Social Justice, the authors focus on illuminating and exploring the complex arguments to reduce the conflict of explanation prepared by other writers. It tends to help the authors to centralize Rokeya‟s ideas on Social Justice that requires both redistribution and recognition. Ideas of Rokeya and Different Feminist Perspective Like Wollstonecraft, (1974) Rokeya also identified the weak point of socialization process of the subcontinent for women and explained why patriarchal domination continues. She further urged, 'to be middle-class lady, women, sacrifice health, liberty, and virtue for whatever prestige pleasure and power a husband can provide' (p.36). Primitive liberal thinker, Wollstonecraft, (1974) identified women‟s negligence towards education as the main source of misery that makes them weak and wretched. Rokeya did the same in „Better Half and Down Fall of Women‟. Regarding this issue, in twenty century, Nussbaum, C. M. (2000) affirmed that unequal social and political circumstances gave women unequal human capabilities. While Rokeya in 1900 identified these as causes behind lack of capabilities which in turn contributes to exploiting women? Drawing from those literatures, the authors argue that women are not treated as means (forerunner of development) and ends (consumer of development), achieving from their own struggle. Instead, they are treated as a reproducer, caregiver, sexual outlet or an agent of family‟s general economic and social development. Here, in explaining these realities Rokeya's argument has become clear in the article titled 'Confined lady in Haram' (Oborodbashini).Like Nussbaum, C. M. (2000), Rokeya urged that oppression of women is not an intentional act of an individual but the product of social construction which Acton, B.H. (1967) explained as the political, social, and economic structure associated with capitalism. Like Henry, B. A (1967) Rokeya‟s writings prove that there is a false class-consciousness in women, as they sometimes play the role of wives, daughter, friends, lovers of proletarian men and they have no sense of human demand; especially in „Shurgrihini‟, Rokeya identified how women become the daily utensils 4 Haque and Rashid of patriarchal society. But women do not feel their individual role and identity in the social arena. Specially, an interesting understanding emerges when Rokeya‟s argument in Sultana‟s Dream (Hossain, 1908, pp. 484-496) is focused. A women dreaming of domination of women over men introduce us to the female culture and radical feminist thought like Kate, M. (1992). Rokeya urged indirectly in “Sultana‟s Dream” to install the female domination with the destruction of the sex-gender system. In addition to that, in “Toroni Vobon” novel, she cited that the male domination is the real source of women's oppression. It draws conclusions like Kate, M. (1992).“Unless the clinging to male supremacy as a birthright is finally forgone, all systems of oppression will continue to function simply by virtue of their logical and emotional mandate”. Finally, Rokeya, like Kate, M. (1970), affirmed that the ultimate solution to the patriarchal imposition of femininity and male-control must be eliminated with economic empowerment and education for women to be liberated. Nancy Fraser's Social Justice and Ideas of Begum Rokeya Hossain, S. R. (1905) identified religious bindings and social construction as instruments of de-recognition like Fraser‟s social de-recognition that hinders women‟s education and reduces social patterns of women representation and self- respect. Rokeya, in her „Ordhangi‟ article, especially emphasized the equality by birth and argued that Allah makes equal men and women. She criticized social restriction that hinders women‟s freedom and equal right within society. Similarly, in the article of, „Borqa‟, „Downfall of Women‟ and the book „Oborodbashini‟,