Begum Rokeya Day today

Begum Rokeya Day will be observed countrywide today to pay tribute to Begum Rokeya Sakhawat, a social reformer and pioneer of women’s education.

Rangpur district administration has completed preparations to observe Rokeya Day- 2022 at the birthplace Pairaband village of Begum Rokeya in Mithapukur upazila.

Officials said the three-day programs have been taken to observe the day from today with the placing of wreaths at Begum Rokeya Smritistambha in Pairaband village and hoisting of the national flag at 10 am.

The inaugural day programs include milad mehfil, screening of documentary films, spontaneous blood donation, blood group tests, inauguration of three-day `Rokeya Fair’ and debate completion followed by discussion and cultural functions.

Artists of ‘Joybangla Sangskritik Jyote’, ‘Kholeya Ganjipur Kochikonther Asor’, ‘Begum Rokeya Shakhawat Sangskritik Gosthi, Pairaband’, and ‘Pairaband Begum Rokeya Smritikendra’ will participate in the inaugural day cultural functions.

On Saturday, drawing, poem recitation, essay writing and debate competitions for students in different categories and screening of documentary films on women empowerment will be organised.

Besides, a discussion on the ‘Role of women in socioeconomic development’ followed by the staging of dramas and cultural functions will be organised on the second day.

In the cultural functions on the second day, Artists of ‘Paglapeer Shishu Sangeet Bidfylaya’, ‘District Shilpokola Academy’ and ‘Begum Rokeya Shakhawat Sangskritik Gosthi’ will participate.

On Sunday, the final rounds of debate competitions followed by discussion on the life and works of Begum Rokeya, distribution of prizes and medals, staging of dramas and cultural functions will be organised at Pairaband village.

Artists of ‘Rangpur Nattya Kendra’ will stage the drama ‘Shasti’ and while artists of ‘Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Mithapukur’, local artists, invited artists and artists from different cultural organisations will render programs in the concluding day cultural functions.

President of Bangla Academy, Swadhinata and Ekushey Padak winning writer and novelist Selina Hossain, its Director General Mohammad Nurul Huda, Divisional Commissioner Md Sabirul Islam, Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Nure Alam Mina, Deputy Commissioner Chitralekha Nazneen, Mithapukur Upazila Nirbahi Officer Fatematuz Zohra, high officials, academics, political leaders, socio-cultural and literary personalities, will participate in the three-day programs.

Begum Rokeya was born in village Pairaband of Rangpur on December 9, 1880, and died on the same day in 1932 in Kolkata.

The great woman struggled all through her life for establishing women’s rights, freedom, education, empowerment and economic emancipation creating a renaissance in the then highly conservative and British-ruled colonial society in the sub-continent.

The birth and death anniversaries of Begum Rokeya are officially being observed as Rokeya Day since 1994 at Pairaband village under Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur.