“…in the far-off Ladyland, ladies rule over the country…”: Empowerment and Cooperation in Rokeya Sakhwawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream” Anonymous College

Some dreams can be “too good to be true”; nevertheless, they depict unconscious wish that can be attained in real life. In her dream, Sultana figures out that life in Ladyland is vastly different from life in her land (India) where the women cannot “come out of the zenana, as we are naturally weak.” The perception that women are “naturally weak” aims at oppressing the women in Sultana’s land so that they can stay in the Zenana. Staying in the Zenana guarantees men there that the women will not come out to challenge them economically, politically and socially. Even though it is an exaggerated dream, a feminist examination of “Sultana’s Dream” explicates how sisterhood can help women and girls to overcome patriarchy as long as they use the brains well; fighting patriarchy does not require the women to go the battle field with sophisticated weapons, but it requires cooperation between wise women who know the significance of girl-power.

The patriarchal ideology is moribund Ladyland. In Ladyland, passers-by joke that the Sultana is “shy and timid like men”. This joke is ironical; normally, it is a woman who would have depicted such traits. Patriarchy conditions women to be “ timid and shy”, but it is not the case in Ladyland because...