Sultana’s Dream

 A woman's vocabulary exist linked to the feminine universe. i feel occasionally  in that i am  inspired by certain  number of attraction  subjects which always draw me  rather than  they would if i were a man  i don't won' to  make feminists  cinema either just tell women about women

Agnes Varda 

Film Maker

About the Author

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s seminal science fiction short story ‘Sultana’s Dream’ depicted a feminist utopia, and was one of the first fictional works in India to do so. However, it never really received the fame and recognition that the work of later feminist authors did.

.About  sultana's dream 

Like the story’s author, the narrator of “Sultana’s Dream” practices purdah, whereby women are sequestered in a home’s “zenana” area. Whisked away to a future city-state known as Ladyland, Sultana is at first hesitant to venture into the street. Isn’t it unsafe for women out there? Her host, however, reassures her that she has nothing to fear… because, 30 years earlier, during a war that killed off most of the nation’s menfolk, the surviving males were ordered to isolate themselves indoors, where they’ve remained ever since.

Concept of Ander Mahal

Digital narrative begin with the concept  ander mahal. it is also known as zenana. a zenana is part of house where women are secluded from men. in a lady land  variety of circumstances  led to a men being housed permanently in zenana, while women were free to study, create and conducted a society as sister sara explains sultana 

now they are accustomed to the purdah  system and have ceased to grumble at their seclusion we call the system "Mardana'' instead of ''Zenana". Ander mahal can be considered as universe for women as women were free in that place they  can enjoy them selves.

Observation of female and their connection with books                                     (post colonial education movement)

Ladyland's feminist utopia emerges as a direct result of accessible female education; when the Queen passes an order that all women should be educated, women are able to receive a proper scientific education and begin to turn their attention towards innovation. After the order is passed, universities for women are built, where women like the Lady Principal who invents the sun-heat harnessing machine and the Lady Principal who creates the water balloon are able to fully rise to their intellectual potential. The story's emphasis on education reflects Rokeya's own devotion to female education and empowerment.

Comparative study of both Narrative sultana's Dream and Reality

Sultana’s Dream is a feminist attempt at imagining a feminist utopia, named ‘Ladyland’, the story in itself draws a lot of inspiration from her own life experiences as a Muslim girl child born to an upper class Muslim family. The women of the family were under strict observance of Purdah system that secluded them to the domestic realm.

sultana's Dream," in portraying an idyllic all-female society, criticizes male power structures, including political, religious, and social institutions that were all male-dominated at the time of the story's composition. Religion in Ladyland, for example, is focused on love and truth, which implies that religion in "regular"—patriarchal—society is the opposite, and fails to embody these values. The explicit mention of certain items, such as the Koh-i-Noor and the Peacock Throne, make the story's criticism even more explicit, as they overtly reference the Mughal dynasty and condemn the Mughal empire's focus on extravagant riches and military warfare.Women and men work in a completely opposite manner than sultana’s world.  while  sultana's reality is a prequal of sultana's dream 

While the Sultana’s reality gives a view of Sultana’s world and their suffering. Complete opposite concepts are seen in both narrative. Women ruling and growing faster in Dream and Reality.

Conclusion:

Through ‘Sultana’s Dream’, Hossain unfamiliarizes the familiar, signaling towards the emergence of a new-world free from dominance of power. Her focus on the purdah, women education and English language becomes a marker of the nineteenth century reform movements carried on for women education. Additionally, Sultana’s Dream remains one of the first stories to be authored in English by a women in colonial times (Tharu,1991:340), thus making a distinct mark in the oeuvre of Indian Literature in English.