Thus, she pointed to the embedded connection between the public and the private long before latter-day feminist scholars theorised these inherent underpinnings. In her short stories such as "Gyanphal," "Muktiphal" and "Bhrata O Bhogni" and essays like "Asha-Jwuti," Rokeya sent the same stark message—to those who wanted to decolonise their country—that without making women equal partners in every sphere of life, it would be impossible to achieve liberation, especially from colonial rule.

My decades-long research on the life and work of Rokeya shows that she didn't seek to improve the condition of women alone. She wanted to break the imperial shackles and to liberate the people of the subcontinent from colonial subjugation, and the key to that liberation, according to her, was the emancipation of women.

It is true that Rokeya refers to Muslim women and Muslim society again and again in her work. This repeated mention should be understood in the broader context of the double colonisation of Muslim men (as Muslims and Indians) and the triple colonisation of Muslim women (as women, Muslims and Indians)—all were exacerbated after the failed 1857-58 uprising. She sought to alleviate the plight of the victimised and the marginalised. Therefore, when discussing Rokeya, we cannot keep the here and the now at a distance.

For example, people in Bangladesh suffered many human rights violations, from enforced disappearances to mass killings in the streets, during Sheikh Hasina's rule from early 2009 to August 5, 2024. We saw our banks plundered and our money syphoned off to foreign shores through capital flight. Opposition political parties were suppressed (and "managed") and couldn't do much to rescue the nation from what is now widely regarded as Hasina's fascism. Finally, our students and other young people—both male and female—braved the risk of street death by shooting (in the head) by government forces. In July 2024, they sparked a formidable movement and gave their lives for the love and liberation of their country. The selflessness, courage and heroism of tens of thousands of surviving young people eventually defeated the greed and cruelty of Hasina and her lickspittles.

Recently, while studying the 1857-58 rebellion and its aftermath, I shuddered with horror thinking of the dreadful consequences had the July uprising failed and Sheikh Hasina remained in power. This also tells me about the heavy burden of the post-1857-58 collective trauma among the Muslim community that Rokeya had to process while she was writing. It is important to consider this aspect of Rokeya's literary career while reading her work. Equally, in order to make our struggle for gender justice relevant and efficacious, we can't turn a blind eye to the larger political context that affects the lives of both men and women.

Dr Md Mahmudul Hasan is professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the International Islamic University Malaysia. He can be reached at [email protected].