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=                          Sultana's_Dream                           =
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                            Introduction
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'Sultana's Dream' is a 1905 Bengali feminist utopian story in English,
written by Begum Rokeya, also known as Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, a
Muslim feminist, writer and social reformer from Bengal. It was
published in the same year in Madras-based English periodical 'The
Indian Ladies Magazine'.


                                Plot
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It depicts a science fiction feminist utopia called Ladyland, in which
women run everything and men are secluded, in a mirror-image of the
traditional practice of 'purdah'. The women are aided by technology
which enables laborless farming and flying cars; the women scientists
have discovered how to trap solar power and control the weather. This
results in "a sort of gender-based Planet of the Apes where the roles
are reversed and the men are locked away in a technologically advanced
future."

There, traditional stereotypes such as “Men have bigger brains” and
women are "naturally weak" are countered with logic such as "an
elephant also has a bigger and heavier brain" and “a lion is stronger
than a man” and yet neither of them dominates men. In Ladyland crime
is eliminated, since men were considered responsible for all of it.
The workday is only two hours long, since men used to waste six hours
of each day in smoking. The religion is one of love and truth. Purity
is held above all, such that the list of "sacred relations" ('mahram')
is widely extended.


                        Origin of the story
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According to Hossain, she wrote 'Sultana's Dream' as a way to pass the
time while her husband, Khan Bahadur Syed Sakhawat Hossain, a deputy
magistrate, was away on a tour. Her husband was an appreciative
audience and encouraged Hossain to read and write in English. Thus,
writing 'Sultana's Dream' in English was a way of demonstrating her
proficiency in the language to her husband. Sakhawat was very
impressed by the story and encouraged Hossain to submit the piece to
'The Indian Ladies Magazine,' which published the story for the first
time in 1905. The story was later published in book form in 1908.

Hossain (1880-1932) was born into a rich family who owned land. Though
she knew how to read and write in Urdu, she was prevented from
learning Bangla and English. In those days, English was seen as a
language that would expose girls to new ideas, which society thought
unsuitable. Rokeya learned to read and write English and Bangla with
the help of her elder sister and elder brother. She wrote 'Sultana's
Dream' when she was merely 25 years old. In 1910, she started a school
for girls in Kolkata and to this day, the school is in operation.


                             In artwork
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In 2018, the Indian-American artist Chitra Ganesh created 27 linocuts
to illustrate the story.

In 2023, the Spanish artist and filmmaker Isabel Herguera released an
animated movie inspired by Sultana's Dream and Begum Rokeya.

In 2025, Indian artist Kruthika N.S. created a pop-up book exhibit
inspired by Sultana's Dream and the work of Begum Rokeya.


                     UNESCO Memory of The World
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In 2024, the UNESCO's Memory of the World Regional Register inscribed
Sultana's Dream.


                              See also
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* Indian English literature
* Social reformers of India
* 'The Begum's Fortune', an 1879 utopian science fiction novel by
Jules Verne
* 'Kithaab'


                           External links
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*
* [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html
Text of 'Sultana's Dream']


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana's_Dream