Naari (Woman), the first comprehensive feminist book is largely akin to The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir in contents and ideas. In this work Azad painstakingly compiled the feminist ideas of the West that underlie the feminist contributions of the subcontinent's socio-political reformers and drew attention to the anti-women attitude of some acclaimed Bengali writers including Rabindranath Tagore. The work, critical of the patriarchal and male-chauvinistic attitude of religion towards women, attracted negative reaction from the conservatives. The Government of Bangladesh banned the book in 1995. The ban was eventually lifted in 2000, following a legal battle that Azad won in the High Court of the country.
Humayun Azad (Bangla: 唳灌唳唳唰傕Θ 唳嗋唳距Ζ) was a Bangladeshi author and scholar. He earned BA degree in Bengali language and literature from University of Dhaka. He obtained his PhD in linguistics from the University of Edinburgh in 1976. He later served as a faculty member of the department of Bengali language and literature at the University of Dhaka. His early career produced works on Bengali linguistics, notably syntax. He was regarded as a leading linguist of the Bangla language.
Towards the end of 1980s, he started to write newspaper column focusing on contemporary socio-political issues. Through his writings of 1990s, he established himself as a freethinker and appeared to be an agnostic. In his works, he openly criticized religious extremism, as well as Islam. In 1992 Professor Azad published the first comprehensive feminist book in Bangla titled Naari (Woman), largely akin to The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir in contents and ideas.
The literary career of Humayun Azad started with poetry. However, his poems did not show any notable poetic fervour. On the other hand his literary essays, particularly those based on original research, carried significant value.
He earned a formidable reputation as a newspaper columnist towards the end of 1980s. His articles were merciless attacks on social and political injustice, hypocrisy and corruption. He was uncowed in protesting military rule. He started to write novels in 1990s. His novel Chappanno Hazar Borgomile is a powerful novel written against military dictatorship. Azad's writings indicate his distaste for corrupt politicians, abusive military rulers and fundamentalist Islam. Nevertheless, his prose shows a well-knit and compact style of his own. His formation of a sentence, choice of words and syntax are very characteristic of him. Although he often fell victim to the temptation of using fiction as a vehicle of conspicuous political and philosophical message, he distinguished himself with his unique style and diction.
On August 11, 2004, Professor Azad was found dead in his apartment in Munich, Germany, where he had arrived a week earlier to conduct research on the nineteenth century German romantic poet Heinrich Heine. He was buried in Rarhikhal, his village home in Bangladesh.
In 2012, the Government of Bangladesh honored him with Ekushey Padak posthumously. Besides this, he was honored with Bangla Academy Award in 1986.
A vast book, an important book, Humayun Azad's take on patriarchy. Overlong, unnecessarily repetitive but a must read. The author has drawn a lot from Simone de Beauvoir and Kate Millett, the views of the latter I found very poignant and entices me to search for her bestseller, Sexual Politics, which was originally her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University and is considered "a seminal influence on second-wave feminism." Azad has launched a scathing attack on Victorian duplicity about women's position in society and has not spared the 'love' shown for Patriarchy by Rousseau, Tennyson, Tagore et al. An extended study of the misconceptions of Freudian thought is also presented. Sexism against women, though eternally portrayed as natural since antiquity, is shown, in detail, to be a socio-political phenomenon and Man's desire to rule over 'the second sex'.
The book was banned three years after its publication in 1992 and only became available after a Higher Court ruling that declared the ban illegal in 2000. One wonders, how long this book will remain in print considering the current sway of Bangladesh society towards religiosity.
The book is dedicated to Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the earliest fighters against patriarchy and it is only apt that I share this quote from her,
"Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison."
I'm glad and fortune that we once had someone like Dr. Humayun Azad in the history of our Bengali literature. And I'm ashamed as well that we couldn't save such a gem of Bengali literature. I think we'll never be able to give birth to another writer like him who would be able to surpass the fire and glory of his writings. This book changed me from tip to toe as a human being. It lit a fire inside of me, that kind of fire which burns you to ashes so that you can rise up like a Phoenix.
The book was banned in Bangladesh for many years, which is not surprising, any country in which State Religion exists, this kind of blow on Free Thinking frequently occurs. It is an important book for every woman to read. Not all books can give this kind of knock in our thought, and these knocks make this book successful. Praising so much doesn't mean that I agree with the book in all aspects, but it is true that the person I was before I started reading the book is not the person I becme after reading it. The book has changed a lot of obdurate thoughts in me, no book has made me think so much before!
Although I don't agree with some topics, I believe what he said is quite true even in the modern world. To have written this book 30 years ago, it's quite amazing to see men realizing and have empathy for women. Too bad he was misunderstood. As a woman, what I've experienced in the patriarchal society, he's written it. He had guts to admit it, while other men pretend to be innocent.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.