Sultana's Dream and Sultana's Reality

Hello everyone,

Today I write blog about the story we discussed in classroom about Sultana's Reality digitally narrated by Afrah Shafiq which was based on 1905 science fiction Sultana's Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein. The concept of this story is feminine and condition of women during that time and also in the history and today. So i want to give my understanding after reading notes and watching videos which was assigned by Yesha Bhatt Ma'am.

First of all i would like to give an introduction of Begum Rokeya:-

Begum Rokeya Hossain:-

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain commonly known as Begum Rokeya, was a prominent Bengali feminist thinker, writer, educator and political activist from British India. She is widely regarded as a pioneer of women's liberation in South Asia.

What is Sultana's Dream:-

Sultana's Dream is a Digitally narrated short story by Begum Rukeya , genre of the story is Utopia - in which Narrator talked about condition of women in 20th century. Which was originally published in 'The Indian Ladies' Magazine', Madras, 1905, in English.

Introduction of Afrah Shafiq :-

Afrah Shafiq has been working as visual artist, researcher, assistant and producer of the documentary, film, art, photography.

Afrah intertwines archival findings, history, memory, folklore and fantasy to create a speculative world born of remix culture. Her work moves across various mediums drawing from the handmade language of traditional folk forms and connecting them to the digital language of the Internet and video games.

 Concept of Andermahel:-

Sultana's Dream:-

What is Andermahel:- Andermahel is kind of place where women has to stay and spent their life which is also known as Zenana. Idea of Andermahel very well discussed in the story of the Sultana's dream, Sultana is sleeping and dreaming about the condition of the women with the girl whom she called her sister - Sara. They both are visiting the village made by Sara. And she introduced everything one by one to Sultana. And after visiting some place Sultana became curious about men as she not seen any men around there so she curiously asked to Sara about where is men and she replied that,

'In their proper places, where they ought to be.' 

And then she told her past about what men do with the women and now what they are doing with men and give few examples that how women can do everything better than men. She compared men with the street animal and try to explain Sultana that how the decision to took men into Zenana is good and they deserve. As in history men put innocent women into zenana without any mistake as they are naturally weak so. And she talked about man of India and other countries that they are free to do mischief with women and capture women into zenana as man think themselves equal to God and powerful one. And then she gave example of line to explain how power is not enough everywhere. Lion is powerful but it can not controlled man and ruled upon society.  

Then Sara drove Sultana to show her house and there Sultana found new decoration and furniture which is wonderful. And she talked about how everything is controlled digitally and naturally even her kitchen too. 

Then she talked about how they became strong and how they got Idea to do everything. She introduced the queen who ruled in their country who strongly believes into education and wanted to make women free from Zenana system and made them indipendent. How she changed the rule of marriage and education, made universities for women and support them to be educated.

Then finally she told about how they able to capture the men into Zenana , they ready to stay there and how they overpowered them as Sultana think that men has great power and mind than women so how they do,  Sara replies that 'by brain'  then she gave an example of Elephant as they had big and heavier brain than anyone else but elephant can not controlled man. Sara told about the history of the country as there were war and men couldn't able to save country and decide to stay in Zenana and women with the help of technology and digitally overpowered the attackers and save the country till the day men stay in Anderkhana and women stay outside of the home. The Queen of the country believed that, 

"If you cannot save your country for lack of physical strength," said the Queen, "try to do so by brain power."

 And the men stay in house system called 'Mardana' rather than 'Zenana'.

Rokeya Hussain has different perspective about Andermahel as she narrated story in which she gave idea about that every woman doesn't want freedom because they like facilities and enjoyed to be lazy and free. But there were some women who wants freedom and want to make their identities. 

2) Observation of females and their connection with books:-

We can see connection of books with every woman of the centuries. There are so many women in history who fight for their rights of education and freedom but here we saw how is Shafiq portraits women, there are so many women who didn't have love for reading and freedom because they enjoyed the facilities which given into Andermehel so here we saw both kind of women.

There is another story named ' Sultana's dream' in which we can see how women were do rebel for freedom and go out from Zenana system but in this 'Sultana's Reality ' where we saw that there is some women who never demanded for freedom as they enjoyed the facilities.

3) Compare both the narrative:-

In the ' Sultana's dream' there is one 'mahel' where Sultana sleeping and suddenly she saw one lady stand infront of her and she called her, her friend Sara. Who took Sultana to visit her Village and both are walking side by side, but Sultana was little confused as she doesn't saw any men around them only women are there saw she strat asking everything to Sara and she clear everything to Sultana how they are reach that place and then Sultana suddenly awake and then she realised that she is dreaming. we can saw that how women was doing rebel with men for freedom and independence, there we can saw how women handle everything even millitary too because they have education and courage to do that 

In the Sultana's reality we can saw there is Sultana reading books and she lost herself into books and feel herself as flying on sky then suddenly she falls down and passed through books in which many historical events are shown, first she read about lord Krishna and Gopi scene while they are taking bath into river and Krishna take cloths of the ladies and climbed tree. Background voice is of our prime minister Narendra Modi, 

"अगर बेटी पैदा नही होगी तो बहु कहा से लाओगे "

Then there is story about lord Rama, Sita and lakshmana in which they are taking 'agnipariksha' of the Sita and constantly voice of women's impowermente are there. Then there is history of Indian politician like, sardar Patel, Gandhiji and Javahar Lal Nehru. They are speaking about role of women into society as mother, sister and daughter. And then suddenly two women took Sultana into room through windows and there is no clue about what happened then.

Conclusion:-

Both story talked about condition of women into 20th century. But both has different ending and meaning as we see Sultana's dream show situation of women got changed and Sultana's Reality shows that how women do suffer for their rights so both has different way to told same story.

Thank you for visiting:-)