A Rebel And Her Cause: Life and Work of Rashid Jahan released by Rakhshanda Jalil

Author Rakhshanda Jalil on 11 March 2014 released a book titled A Rebel And Her Cause: Life and Work of Rashid Jahan at Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts.

Author Rakhshanda Jalil has borrowed the work from the explosive and then-banned book Angarey that Rashid Jahan co-wrote in 1931 with three other young Urdu writers Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmad Ali and Sahibzada Mahmuduzaffar.

The book Angarey was railed against social inequity, hypocritical maulvis and the exploitation of women in a deeply patriarchal society.

Of the two pieces that Jahan contributed to Angarey, one was a short story barely three pages long, Dilli Ki Sair and Parde Ke Peeche.

The book was publicly condemned at the central standing committee of the All-India Shia Conference at Lucknow as a filthy pamphlet that had wounded the feelings of the entire Muslim community. The Urdu press called for a ban.

Rashid Jahan was a Urdu writer of the 20th century. She was a Physician, writer and avowed communist. Rashid Jahan was an inspiration for young Muslim women.

Jahan became a controversial figure after Angarey, an anthology about social inequity and oppression of women, was banned by the colonial government for hurting religious sentiments. The title Angareywali was consequently bestowed upon her by the vernacular press.