Sultana's Dream
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain 1905
A woman dreams of visiting Ladyland, a country ruled by women, in this short story. Her guide shows her a world where men stay indoors and sunlight powers daily life.
15 pages 17 min reading time
- One of the earliest feminist science fiction stories, and one of the first written by a South Asian woman.
- Imagines purdah turned upside down: men are kept indoors, and women run the country with reason and science instead of force. (Purdah is the custom of keeping women hidden from public life.)
- Argues that women were held back by being shut away and denied schooling, not by any lack of ability.
- Pictures solar power, flying cars, and machines that pull water from the air for rain, long before such ideas were common.
- It is now widely read and taught as a founding work of feminist writing in Bengal and the wider Muslim world.
Husband called it revenge
After reading the story, her husband Sakhawat Hossain is said to have called it "a terrible revenge" on men.
Written to pass the time
She wrote it while her husband was away on work, partly to show him how well she wrote English.
Written in a learned language
She wrote in English, a language she had learned mostly in secret from her older brother.
First printed in a magazine
It first appeared in The Indian Ladies' Magazine in Madras, a journal edited by an Indian woman.