Begum Rokeya and Sultana's Dream

Writer and educator Begum Rokeya imagined a world run by women in 1905 and fought for girls' schooling all her life.

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880–1932) was born in Pairaband, Rangpur. In 1905 she published Sultana's Dream, an English-language story describing Ladyland, a country where women run society with science and reason while men stay at home — one of the earliest feminist utopias. After her husband's death she founded the Sakhawat Memorial Girls' School, which she ran in Calcutta from 1911, and campaigned against purdah and for women's education. Bangladesh marks 9 December as Rokeya Day.