Sufia Kamal, the pioneer of women's movement

 

'Except for the soil, there is no such thing as a flowering plant, except for my mother.  Before I was born, my grandmother named me Hasna Banu after hearing 'Hatem Taiyer Kechcha' on her mother's face.  My grandfather passed away from Sadar Ala to Jajgiri in his early years and at the last age he attained the name of Sadhak-Darbesh.  I heard that the day I was born, he named me Sufia Khatun with honey in my mouth.  But my nickname Hasna Banutai is common in our family.  Some people still don't recognize me, says Sufia.  My brother used to call me 'Hachubanu' when I was young;  Some people used to say 'Hasubanu' - this is how the poet Sufia Kamal described her birth in her article titled "Ekale Amader Kal".  He seems to have realized from birth that he needs to bring about a radical change in his social consciousness. That is why he has fought against all irregularities under the banner of social change.

 Sufia Kamal was born on 20 June 1911 in the Shaistabad Nawab family of Barisal.  His father Syed Abdul Bari was a lawyer by profession.  Sufia's father left home when she was seven years old.  In the absence of his missing father, he was brought up in the care of his mother Syeda Sabera Khatun.  Despite growing up in the conservative aristocratic environment of her grandparents' home in Shayestaganj, the country, the people and the society and the language and culture of Sufia Kamal served as the main inspiration.

 Sufia Kamal was born during the formulation of all new forms.  World War I, the independence movement, the renaissance of the Muslim Renaissance, the Russian Revolution, the new discoveries in the world of science, the new beginnings of literature and culture, all these have left a deep imprint on his childhood.

Although he did not have much formal education, he had a strong motivation.  There was an indomitable spirit of revival in that humiliated society.  She got married to her cousin Syed Nehal Hossain in 1923 when she was only 12 years old.  However, his intense desire to overcome the darkness did not subside in the marriage.  With the inspiration and courage of her husband Nehal Hossain, Sufia Kamal started social service and literary practice.  Being engaged in social work, she easily moved in the company of backward women.  He was worried about the picture of their misery and the backwardness of women.

The life of the poet is going through various blows and retaliations.  At the age of 21 he lost to Nehal Hossain (1932) and to Begum Rokeya (1932).  The family's economic helplessness did not exhaust him.  He has conquered humanity by straightening his spine.  Many have cooperated with him.  First of all, the name of Kamaluddin Khan is mentioned, who in 1939 took Sufia Kamal's handkerchief and became her married partner for 36 years.  He lost his mother in 1941.  She lost her son Shoaib in 1983.  She lost her husband Kamaluddin Khan in 1986.  He did not give up in retaliation.  Continued his work.  Protesting all injustices through his literature.

Sufia Kamal also joined the language movement of 1952.  Not only that, when the government of Pakistan banned Rabindranath as part of its policy of suppression of Bengali language and culture, he also strongly protested against it.  In 1971, on the centenary of Rabindranath's birth, he led the 'Cultural Freedom Movement'.  When the Mahila Sangram Parishad (now Bangladesh Mahila Parishad) was formed in 1979, she was elected its founder-head and she was involved in it all her life.  Even after independence, Sufia Kamal established and managed many organizations.  The organizations she is the founding head of are: Bangladesh Women's Rehabilitation Board, Bangladesh Rural Development Committee and Rehabilitation Organization for the Poor.  She was also the President of Chayanat, Bangladesh Disability Foundation and Women's Welfare Organization.

However, Sufia Kamal had her own views and values about women's emancipation, which is why she emphasized women's emancipation as well as principles, ideals and traditions.  But many have not always learned to use that freedom properly.  Is abusing a lot of the time.  It feels very bad to me.  This is that the girls are unnecessarily wearing anti-culture clothes in the fashion frenzy of foreign countries, the business community is using them in various ways, the girls think that this is freedom.  This is abuse.  Let the girls model, let them act, but let it not be a means of losing dignity.  There is no need for unnecessary indecent performances, journeys, dance songs.  Women should take care not to make any product.  Billions of rupees are being earned by showing the bodies of girls in advertisements.  It needs to stop.  Girls need to stop being the product of porn magazines.

Sufia Kamal, a pioneer of the women's movement, is a role model for today's women.  It is the responsibility of all women today to protect the respect that Sufia Kamal has brought to women by protecting their rights.  Bengali culture should not be extinct in the fence of modernity.  All women must be a Sufia in order to face the blows of life.  All irregularities against women must be stopped together.


Mohammad Yasin Islam is Student, Department of Sociology Jagannath University