Sultana's Dream and Selections from The Secluded Ones (A Feminist Press Sourcebook)

Hold the work titled on the book as well as stories by and about the original Author. Had no idea what Muslim Indian culture was like in this time period. The author is apparently known for her surprising humor, and I understand why now.

Really, I just came here for the dream story. It's set in a conservative part of India (or somewhere near), where strict segregation of men and women remains the norm. Depending on how strict, this could approach imprisonment for the women. It's for the women's own good, of course, because mean can be so dangerous and unpredictable.The women, in their gender-exclusive research universities, have been developing solar energy, electric vehicles, weather control, and other such fripperies - useless to the men, interested only in more powerful weapons. Then a war breaks out, and the men lose badly. Beaten and in retreat, they retreat to the city and await conquest. At this point, the women offer to give it a shot, reasoning that nothing they do could make things worse. In order to maintain the segregation, this means the men must take to seclusion while the women try to defend the city.They do this brilliantly, or course. Their mastery of solar energy adapts readily to use as a heat ray. It scorches the enemy where they stand, without ever putting the women's frailty in harm's way. The men's seclusion endures after the war is won - after all, doesn't it make more sense to put the dangerous animals behind bars and let the decent citizens walk freely? It's a very short story, but an interesting Utopia of women in charge.I also found the brief descriptions of purdah interesting if somewhat horrifying, and only worse knowing that such conditions still exist. The biography and commentary interest me less, so I leave them to other commentators. So, although the content is thin, I found it well worth reading, and notably prescient in some of the women's technology.-- wiredweird

Love this book! Feminist sci-fi written by a Bengali woman in 1905?! Yes, Please!

This is an interesting book that gives an insight to the Indian tradition of purda. The only disappointment was that the back cover had a deep crease but, I would still recommend this company.

This is not a book, this is a pamphlet about a book. I am disappointed, great writing just too little for too much money!

This is a fascinating collection of work written by three near east feminists. The length is part of its strength.Highly recommended.

It was a gross mistake I thought it wasn't dream interpretation book its of no interest to me there's nothing in it that I want to read or even care to read sorry

This little book was more than just an extraordinary short story written by a woman in 1905 who examined and questioned purdah by turning the issue into a humorous "dream" sequence (in a place where the men are in purdah!) - it is also a compilation of other materials in the examination of what purdah is and means. Relatively unknown and not understood in the West, "purdah" ("parda" in Hindi, meaning 'curtain') is the seclusion and segregation of women (even from other women, not of the family) and is a tradition that is thrust upon women of many Middle Eastern and Asian societies. In the West we confusedly belief it is only Muslim when in fact other religions undertake it as well.Rokeya Hossain wrote Sultana's Dream at the urging of her husband who was quite forward-thinking (for an Asian male in the early part of the last century!) and who believed that by writing, she would be able to perfect her English skills. The Dream is brilliantly simple and clearly written. The idea that a woman in purdah should suddenly find herself in a place where it is the men in the society who are hidden away and where life is peaceful and intellectual thought and political balance are the norm (as a result of not having the men out messing things up), is a delight even to a contemporary Western reader.The second section of this book is a section complied by Roushan Jahan in which Hossain's writing about purdah (from a book called "The Secluded Ones") is reproduced in the form of various 'reports' all of which demonstrate something fundamentally absurb or violent about being in purdah. The third section is a piece by a Western woman named Hanna Papanek who examines how much more complicated purdah is than just a means by which men in a given society control and suppress women. That definition is certainly valid, but Papanek also examines a case where a woman raised in purdah finds "exposure" (after a life of purdah) to be fraught with fear and discomfort.In all, a fascinating and in a strange sense appalling cultural phenomena that is basically unknown to the West, purdah is handed here to the reader in a way that makes it possible to examine it without generating the viseral anger that the idea raises in most educated women. I am strongly inclined to study the issue further and to find "The Secluded Ones" - once I feel strong enough not to let it infuriate me!

A wonderful book, delivered quickly - thank you.

Not what I expected as this is really an academic review from a feminist perspective (?)of some of the work of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. However the appraisal was easy reading and I will look for the full texts elsewhere as this has wet my appetite.