Begum Rokeya

"Although I am grateful to you for the respect that you have expressed towards me by inviting me to preside over the conference, I am forced to say that you have not made the right choice. I have been locked up in the socially oppressive iron casket of 'porda' for all my life. I have not been able to mix very well with people – as a matter of fact, I do not even know what is expected of a chairperson. I do not know if one is supposed to laugh, or to cry."

"The opponents of the female education say that women will be unruly...fie ! They call themselves muslims and yet go against the basic tenet of islam which gives equal right to education. If men are not led astray once educated, why should women?"

"Your kitchen is not inferior to a queen's boudoir!' I replied with a pleasant smile, 'but we must leave it now; for the gentlemen may be cursing me for keeping them away from their duties in the kitchen so long.' We both laughed heartily."

"If today I get back with you, our conservative grandmothers will say to other women rebelling against gender injustices, Look, even a rebel like Jainab has also surrendered. I don't believe that only married life can be the ultimate success for women."

"Had God Himself intended women to be inferior, He would have ordained it so that mothers would have given birth to daughters at the end of the fifth month of pregnancy. The supply of mother’s milk would naturally have been half of that in case of a son. But that is not the case. How can it be? Is not God just and most merciful?"

"'Why do you allow yourselves to be shut up?' 'Because it cannot be helped as they are stronger than women.' 'A lion is stronger than a man, but it does not enable him to dominate the human race. You have neglected the duty you owe to yourselves and you have lost your natural rights by shutting your eyes to your own interests."

""In order to deceive us, men have published those religious scriptures as "God's commandments". In ancient times, the person who was known among the ten for his talent, he tried to rule the barbarians by declaring himself to be an angel or a god sent by God.... As the world gradually became more intelligent, clever and talented men saw that people no longer believed him when he called him a "prophet". Then the great Jesus introduced himself as a part of God (the Son of God) and wrote the book of the Gospel. In it it is written, 'A woman is completely subject to a man, and her husband has full rights over her property.' And the woman, who was devoid of intelligence and conscience, accepted this. Then the great Mohammed made a law that, 'A woman shall always be subject to a man, before marriage to her father or brother, after marriage to her husband, and in the absence of a husband to her son.' And the foolish woman bowed her head and accepted that law. Sister, you see that these religious scriptures are nothing but rules and regulations written by men. What you hear in the laws of the sages, you may find in the laws of a woman sage the opposite of that. The religious scriptures are not inspired or directed by God. If God had sent an angel for the purpose of ruling women, that angel would not have been limited to Asia only. Why did the angels not go to Europe? Why did they not go from America and from the poles to the poles and proclaim this command of God: "The women shall be subject to men." Is God the God of Asia only? Wasn't America his kingdom? God-given water and air are in all countries, but why haven't the messengers spread throughout the land? If the civilized people of today believe what the barbarians believed in ancient times, then what is the difference between civilization and barbarism? Whatever the case, now we will no longer bow down to the rule of men in the name of religion."

"The main reason why I have never been able to raise my head against slavery is that whenever a sister has tried to raise her head, her head has been crushed by a blow in the form of a weapon in the name of religion or the words of the scriptures. What we did not accept easily at first, we later considered as the command of religion and made it a matter of honor."

""Now let us enter the Muslim society. According to the Muslims, we are 'half' of a man, that is, two women are equal to one man. Or if two brothers and a sister are together, we become 'two and a half'... You will find in the 'Muhammadan law' that there is a provision that a daughter gets half of a son's share in the ancestral property.... But we are not half of brothers in the eyes of God and mother. If that were the case, the natural arrangement would be that where a son gets ten months, a daughter gets five months!!... We enjoy the love and affection of our mother equally with our brother. There is no partiality in the heart of a mother."

"The more veiled and hidden like a snail in the corners of the house, the more noble he is."

"When the train arrived, an English employee said to Haji Saheb in broken Hindi, "Munshi! You should walk with your shoes. When the train arrives, there will be no empty seats on the platform." Haji Saheb said with folded hands, "Hujur, all those shoes are not covered." The employee again tapped his shoe on a "bag" and said, "Ha, ha - all those shoes should walk." The women did not utter the word "shoe boot" at the request of the veil."

"[A woman] had gone to the house of a Bengali gentleman for a wedding invitation. As soon as they saw her [with a burqa], the boys and girls there would scream in fear and run away, not knowing who would."

"[That woman] once came to Calcutta. When four or five of them went out in an open motor with burqas, the boys on the street would say, "Oma! What are those?" They would say to each other, "Be quiet! They can't help but become ghosts at this time of night." When they saw the burqa's veil fluttering in the wind, they would say, "Look, look. The ghosts' bodies are moving! Father! Run away!""

"In order to silence the crying children, the people on the street would point their fingers at them and say, "Shut up, look, Mecca is going to Medina, oh!" - The besieged Jujuburis, they are Mecca and Medina!""

"I was in Aligarh till last year. Since the station there seemed to be unique in its splendor on the E. I. R. line, I used to go there every day on foot. Among other things, I saw many 13th-century burqas there. And God knows, every burqa was funny in some way or the other."

"Why did I come, oh! to this burning world, why was I born in a house with a curtain-veil!"

"Begum Rokeya had dreamt of a society where women would be magistrates, judges and barristers and that has come true as many women are already there in such posts."

"She was much ahead of her time and society in understanding the causes of its degradation and in setting up a correct approach to address them. She rightly realised that without empowering women, a society can never flourish. Hence, the thematic thread that runs through all her intellectual efforts is a concern for equitable gender relations – feminism."