Writing for Change: Rashid Jahan and Marxist Feminist Thought

The Marxist-feminist, Rashid Jahan wrote scathingly against exploitation, the plight of sex workers, the challenges faced by the communists, arranged marriages, communal angst, women oppressing other women, and inter-caste marriages. She needs to be celebrated for many reasons – her bold attitude that acquired her many adversaries, her concern for humanity, her indefatigable capacity to work as a doctor and a communist, as a writer and her charismatic personality that won her many admirers. She fought for the upliftment of women and the downtrodden of society. Her oeuvre is seminal in foregrounding women’s issues at much larger levels in Urdu literature.