Translated into English from the original Bengali anthology, Zenana Mehfil (Stree1998), this collection of early writings of Bengali Muslim women helps make visible women writers of Bengal, between East Pakistan and West Bengal, India, 1947.Why was so little known about these writers? Do dominating interest ‘marginalize, sometimes even obliterate other histories’?

Divided into two parts, Part I, Women’s Writings, offers the contributions of eleven women, one known widely because of her brilliance as a writer and her pioneering role as a courageous social reformer. Part II, Conversations, presents discussions with Sufia Kamal, family members and relatives of the writers and eminent people who shared the political and literary concerns of those times.

The anthology includes Begum Rokeya Skhawat Hossain and her contemporaries like Khairunnsea Khatun, Mrs M. Rahman, M. Fatema, Khanam and Nurunsesa, the first woman student of the M.A class in the University of Dhaka, Mahmuda Khatun Siddiqua, and Razia Khatun Chowdhurani.