I missed the following discussion on Begum Rokeya and Taslima Nasrin. I believe a comparative study on these two great ladies would be interesting and educational.
I believe Rokeya is more popular among religious Muslims because she was very much a Muslim woman. During her time, Muslim women were practically under house arrest, and absolutely no challenge to the male domination. She saw the captivity of women and other forms of injustice as distortions of the true Islam. She was the founder of an Islamic women's association; too far behind on looking at Islam with an open mind.
On the other hand, Taslima came at a time when women had already come quite a bit out of the captivity, and started to challenge the male domination. She does not call herself a Muslim woman; she is more comfortable being just a human. She has certainly opened the Islamic books with an open mind. She not only criticized the treatments of women in Muslim societies, she also criticized Muslims for hating and discriminating against non-Muslims.
Taslima has written a lot more than how much Rokeya did. While I can see some poor quality in Taslima's writings, she is much more of a revolutionary than what Rokeya was.
My knowledge in the subject is very limited. But I believe the information and rationale that I have presented above are correct. I would be happy to learn more.
Sukhamaya Bain
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From: subimal chakrabarty <subimal@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 10:05 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Can we discuss religion freely?
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 10:05 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Can we discuss religion freely?
No doubt Rokeya and Taslima are not comparable in many respects. Without going into that debate (we had enough of this and it is already overwrought) I simply quote from Rokeya: "In order to keep us (women) in dark, males have published (prakash koriachhen) those holy books (dharmagranthagulike) as the promulgations (adeshpatra) of God." (Ref: "Narir Sahitya o sahitye nari" by Selina Hossain published in Ogrobeej December 2009, edited by Subimal Chakrabarty). I must say that by saying this, Rokeya has vehemently defied the so called divine authorities and expressed a simple but unpleasant truth. I need to add that a holy book does not need to be claimed to be divine. Every thing good in it is being and surely will be gladly accepted by. Only merchants of religion need this extra certificate as they suffer from lack of self esteem the reason being that the whole package they offer to the followers contains teachings that are time barred and are not universally acceptable.
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From: qar <qrahman@netscape.net>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 11:28 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Can we discuss religion freely?
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 11:28 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Can we discuss religion freely?
Begum Rokeya does not get caught for saying that religion was created by males but Taslima Nasrin is not spared for echoing the same!
>>>>>>>> I think Begum Rokeya said it in context of improving conditions of Muslims. Taslima (Not worth comparing her with anyone like Begum Rokeya) on the other hand knowingly spread wrong information about Islam. I mean Begum Rokeya was a human being and we are error prone. But if you do not agree with everything she said, one has to respect her "INTENTION" to improve the then backward Muslim communities. She was a noble lady with a good cause. Taslima on the other hand, whipped up some inserted orientalist opinions of Islam and "Profited" from it. She even spread falsehood about the very people who protected her in west Bengal (As if all males are going to hit on her!!). A person with any kind of honor or value would not do such a thing. If you sum up her life's work, it is nothing but sensational and (Pardon my word) "Whoring" for another "Headline". In plain Bangla we say, Koi agortola ar koi choukeer tola.... NO comparison between these two characters. Shalom!
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-----Original Message----- From: subimal chakrabarty <subimal@yahoo.com> To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thu, Jun 28, 2012 4:55 am Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Can we discuss religion freely?
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2. Given our socio-economic condition, although admittedly there is risk involved in critiquing a religion, we cannot help doing it. The reason is that when fallen in the hands of a reactionary force (a fanatic, a fundamentalist, or a dictator), it can create havoc. How would you explain to the religious Hindus that Fida's painting of the nude Saraswati was born out of a great artistic inspiration? What would you say to solace the religious Muslims that Satanic Verses was a great piece of literary work? Begum Rokeya does not get caught for saying that religion was created by males but Taslima Nasrin is not spared for echoing the same! You cannot but critique (I mean reinterpret it in the light of new realities) Islam if you really do not want the Islamists to implement discriminatory Shariah law in the name of a divine law? Could Vidyasagar really advocate for widow-marriage without angering the orthodox Hindus? You can come up with innumerable examples to show that without critiquing religion in a positive manner, science, literature, and society would not have reached the present stage. Merchants of religion are trying to change the direction of history.
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