Sultana's Dream
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"Sultana's Dream" is a classic work of South Asian Muslim literature, written in 1905 by Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, a Bengali Muslim novelist and social reformer.
The short story "Sultana's Dream" was originally published in English in The Indian Ladies Magazine of Madras (India). It depicts a feminist utopia in which men are locked away in seclusion, in a manner corresponding to the traditional Muslim practice of purdah for women. As a result, women run everything, aided by science fiction-esque "electrical" technology which enables labourless farming and flying cars. Crime is eliminated, since men were responsible for it all. The workday is only two hours long, since men used to waste six hours of each day in smoking. The religion is one of love and truth, rather than any traditional faith with a history of denying the rights of women.
