THE book I intend to talk about brings with it an interesting story, the story of a handwritten women’s journal which made its appearance a hundred years ago under the joint editorship of three teenagers and remained in circulation for about five years.

Now, after about a century, an attempt has been made to dig out the issues of that journal which had appeared under the title Chaman and collect facts about the women who were associated with it. Rummana Qadri has compiled all the researched material in a volume titled Rudad-e-Chaman.

The story goes back to a time when a movement calling for Muslim women’s education had been launched with a missionary zeal. Three journals — Tahzeeb-i-Niswan, Ismat and Khatoon — published respectively, from Lahore, Delhi, and Aligarh, were at the forefront of this movement.

It was during these inspired years that the idea of such a journal cropped up in the minds of young daughters of the Naqvia family in the city of Badaun. They were Humaira Khatoon, (aged 14 years) Syeda Khatoon (16 years), and Azra Khatoon (13 years). They thought of doing something for the betterment of Muslim women in their own small way. Conscious of their limitations, they chose to concentrate only on family life within the home. For instance, problems relating to the saas-bahu relationship call for providing guidance to both parties. Why not provide it? The idea of a handwritten journal, keeping in view family problems, occurred to them, and they acted on it.

Humaira Khatoon acted as editor of Chaman. Syeda Khatoon was appointed joint editor. Later Azra Khatoon replaced her. The journal was a monthly. The editor would compile two copies of the issue — one copy was meant for circulation. This handwritten copy was sent by post to any of the selected readers. After reading it the reader sent it to the next reader residing in another city. In this way the issue travelled from hand to hand and from city to city. At the end of the month, the issue was sent back to the editor.

Now, after about a hundred years, the lost journal has attracted the attention of a few researchers. They have succeeded in tracing out a number of handwritten issues. After making a selection from these issues, Qadri compiled them in a volume titled Rudad-e-Chaman, Fatima Qudsia Naqvi revised it and it was published by Ushba. In the compiled volume we are first introduced to all the young and old women who have come to be known as the contributors to this journal. Their writings show their enthusiasm for Muslim women’s emancipation. The other part of the book consists of reformative articles, poems, and letters to the editor written by women readers, who are all excited at the idea of education for women and their release from the ‘backwardness’ which till now has been their fate.

The editors had rightly chosen to pay special attention to family life within the home since those were the times when Muslim women were obliged to observe purdah, and conflict and friction within the family was something they often dealt with. In this journal we find a number of articles on these issues. There are even poems on this topic, such as:

A poem in self praise: