Below is the abstract of and the link to my article ‘Burqa and the Begum: Strategic Adoption of Islam in Rokeya’s Later Writings’ published in INDIAN JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE & TRANSLATION STUDIES An International Journal of Literature, Culture & Translation. Burqa and the Begum: Strategic Adoption of Islam in Rokeya’s Later Writings Durdana Matin Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh Abstract: Evidence can be found in the life and works of Begum Rokeya, a major cultural figure in the Indian subcontinent, to support the popular notion that she pioneered and strongly advocated the importance of the advancement of female education in Bengal. She encountered certain issues in her time that would be recognized by feminists today as their rallying points too. They would also perceive in her response to those issues a clear feminist edge. However, one is likely to notice a marked change in her position from intransigence in her early life to pacifism later. Both conservatives and liberals lay claim to her as their champion though the idealistic and pacifist image of her carved by the conservatives has been established as her true representation and more successfully instilled in the popular psyche ever since her death. On the other hand, those who depict her as belligerent and unapologetic have not been able to make a strong case for this image as Rokeya did not stick to this polemical position for too long. Consequently, the popular version of Rokeya as a pious, modest and God-fearing person concerned with the deplorable condition of women in her community in colonial Bengal has stuck. However, even this interpretation of Rokeya has its limitations. This paper attempts to explore the true identity of Rokeya in the light of her life and works contrary to the one constructed by the prevailing popular discourse. Abstract: Evidence can be found in the life and works of Begum Rokeya, a major cultural figure in the Indian subcontinent, to support the popular notion that she pioneered and strongly advocated the importance of the advancement of female education in Bengal. She encountered certain issues in her time that would be recognized by feminists today as their rallying points too. They would also perceive in her response to those issues a clear feminist edge. However, one is likely to notice a marked change in her position from intransigence in her early life to pacifism later. Both conservatives and liberals lay claim to her as their champion though the idealistic and pacifist image of her carved by the conservatives has been established as her true representation and more successfully instilled in the popular psyche ever since her death. On the other hand, those who depict her as belligerent and unapologetic have not been able to make a strong case for this image as Rokeya did not stick to this polemical position for too long. Consequently, the popular version of Rokeya as a pious, modest and God-fearing person concerned with the deplorable condition of women in her community in colonial Bengal has stuck. However, even this interpretation of Rokeya has its limitations. This paper attempts to explore the true identity of Rokeya in the light of her life and works contrary to the one constructed by the prevailing popular discourse. Begum Rokeya‟s life and works are mostly dedicated to the issues of gender inequality and the marginalisation of women. Her writings express a deep concern with finding a way out for this marginalised multitude of human beings whose miseries, she would think, resulted from the opportunities they were deprived of under the patriarchal family and social systems. She understood that these institutions were entrenched in a mindset nurtured for ages and thereby fortified and strengthened further by the male interpretation of religion in which women figured as spiritually vulnerable and potential sinners. Begum Rokeya‟s object was to disabuse the society of the false notion about women and expose their human potential. She knew that even women themselves were not ready for their freedom if it were given to them. Hence her intentions were basically twofold: to wean women away from superstition and enlighten their mind with reason and to persuade the forbidding patriarchs of the good that would come of female freedom. Unlike her renowned counterparts in the West, Begum Rokeya combined her intellectual and literary works with her practical experiences of working for gender equality on the ground. The fact that she was more of an activist than a writer made her literary aspiration take a back seat and give way to her social activism. In spite of that she has left behind a good number of literary works, which include two anthologies, short stories, novel, essays, letters as well as many other works not collected and published during her lifetime. After her maiden work “Pipasha (Thirst),” published in 1902, Begum Rokeya‟s campaign for women‟s rights began in 1903 with the publication of her essay “Alangkar na Badge of Slavery (Ornaments or Badge of Slavery?”—a severe attack mainly on patriarchy and religion. Later in 1904 that essay was published again with a changed title “Amader Abanati (Our Degradation)”. Rokeya argues that women‟s oppression should be understood as a direct consequence of unfair, male-centric “social injunctions” embodied in all religions, and not merely as a by-product of the misplaced conservatism of a few orthodox mullahs (Sarkar