Rokeya’s relevance to Palestinian feminism

• Main Author: Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: HQ 1075 Sex role; HQ1101 Women. Feminism; HQ1088 Men; JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration; PI Oriental languages and literatures; PR English literature
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/109377/1/Rokeya%27s%20relevance%20to%20Palestenian%20Feminism_The%20Daily%20Star_23122023_p14.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/109377/; https://www.thedailystar.net/star-literature/news/rokeyas-relevance-palestinian-feminism-3501001

Rokeya's land was under British colonialism and Palestinian women's is under Israeli occupation. During Rokeya's time the anticolonial struggle in Bengal was gaining strength; and for many decades Palestinian women have rejected Israeli land confiscation policies through mass resistance and struggle. Therefore, Rokeya's and Palestinian feminisms have resonances and cannot be compared to conventional, Western feminist discourses. In In Search of Islamic Feminism (1998), Elizabeth Warnock Fernea quotes a Palestinian woman who said that Palestinian women remain busy with things like "getting their teenage children out of jail" which most of their American counterparts do not have to face or even imagine. Similarly, Rokeya's contemporary Western women didn't have to face the socio political challenges from which Rokeya and other women in British India were suffering. This brings Rokeya's feminist ideas much closer to the experiences of Palestinian women and their feminist thinking.