Feminist Theory Feminist Science Fiction: Sultana's Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein
Feminist Theory Feminist Science Fiction: Sultana's Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein
This was originally published 120 years ago in 1905 by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, who went on to found schools for girls and advocate for women and girls both through her writing and her work convincing misogynistic families to let their daughters attend her schools. I read about her life in the foreword to my print copy of Sultana's Dream, and found this article, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, about her life really interesting as well.
I loved her arguments and reversals of common misogynistic arguments for keeping women from working for ourselves and from leadership roles in society — especially "Sister Sara's" point about how a society would catch a large angry animal or a dangerously mentally ill person and put them in an institution, rather than expect everyone to just live in danger of being attacked for no reason, but women are expected to adjust our behavior around omnipresent male violence instead of the perpetrators being dealt with as they deserve.
I hope you will all check out the story (it's incredibly short, about 11 pages in my copy) and I would love to hear what everyone thinks!
I am here to show everyone this incredible feminist science fiction short story, Sultana's Dream.
This was originally published 120 years ago in 1905 by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, who went on to found schools for girls and advocate for women and girls both through her writing and her work convincing misogynistic families to let their daughters attend her schools. I read about her life in the foreword to my print copy of Sultana's Dream, and found this article, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, about her life really interesting as well.
I loved her arguments and reversals of common misogynistic arguments for keeping women from working for ourselves and from leadership roles in society — especially "Sister Sara's" point about how a society would catch a large angry animal or a dangerously mentally ill person and put them in an institution, rather than expect everyone to just live in danger of being attacked for no reason, but women are expected to adjust our behavior around omnipresent male violence instead of the perpetrators being dealt with as they deserve.
I hope you will all check out the story (it's incredibly short, about 11 pages in my copy) and I would love to hear what everyone thinks!
