WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/49154

I have no comment on Mr. Ratan's write-up, however, I'd like to
make some remark on Ms. Farida Majid's post on Rokeya issue. I was a
bit surprised by Ms. Majid's comment and using unnecessary
adjectives such as `idotic', `moronic', `knee-jerk
feminists', `smart-alec' etc. on Akimun Rahaman, who is one of the
mainstream critic and essayist writers in today's Bangladesh,
besides her teaching career. It looks Ms. Majid did not ever hear
her name at all, thus he says. `Who is Dr. Akimun Rahman? Where --
in which publication --did he make those idiotic remarks…'. While
its not a sin of being ignorant of a particular writer, however,
name calling and using adjectives as above to her without knowing
her work should be!

Dr. Akimun Rahman did not write any separate piece on Rokeya here,
what Mr. Ratan criticized was a portion depicted in "Bibi Theke
Begum" , a monumental research work by Akimun Rahaman picturing the
evolution of Bengali Muslim women which earned her PhD in 1996, and
later the work has been published in a book format from Ankur. Many
significant linguistics and academicians including Prof Humayun Azad
praised her work at that time.

One may not agree with everything what Akimun has written, but
certainly it has opened a new door for academic research. Ms. Majid
should understand that in academia, there is no place for `byakti
puja', no matter the 'hero' is a person like Aristotle, Pleto, Tagore, Darwin,
Rokeya, or even Mother Teresa. For example, Bertrand Russell
criticized Aristotelian teaching by saying whatever Aristotle taught
to us was wrong. Human progression has to come out from Aristotelian
hindrance in each and every step that we made. I can cite how
Christopher Hitchens criticized Mother Teresa in his book –` The
Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice' for
having relationships with wealthy and corrupt individuals including
Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and his wife Michèle Duvalier,
enigmatic quasi-religious figure John-Roger, and disgraced former
financial executive Charles Keating. Hitchens also showed sometimes
Mother Teresa did not want to eliminate the poverty, but used `poor
people' of Calcutta. The Sunday Times says on Hitchen's work -: "A
dirty job but someone had to do it". Prabir Ghosh also criticized
the view of Revered Figures of India which our MM member Aparthib
beautifully pointed out in one of his essays, "An Irreverent Look at
Some of India's Most Revered Figures":

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/aparthib/Revered_Figures.htm

Few years ago Mukto-Mona had a very lengthy but useful debate on
various aspect of life of Tagore, especially on Feminism. I think
that the critics at that time were all appreciative of the genius of
Tagore as far as we are concern. But critical thinking which Mukto-
Mona promotes, also involves a critical look at widely held views
and beliefs on personalities and offer contrarian factual data if
applicable. This is an integral part of critical thinking, to those
who apotheosize such personalities it may seem as nit picking,
cynical thing to do. While Ms. Majid points (her) ULTIMATE `rule-of-
the-thumb' and advised `NOT to mess with Begum Rokeya', there will
be always some to view from different side. We should not discourage
it. This is my humble opinion.

Regards
Avijit