To generate awareness about this issue, Women for Women, a research and study group, organised a seminar on Women and Poetry at the Centre for Advanced Research in the Humanities of Dhaka University Wednesday last.

The programme marked the birth anniversary of the pioneer of establishing education system for the Bangalee Muslim women, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein.

The seminar included two discussion sessions followed by rendition of folk songs and recitation by prominent and promising women poets of the country.

Speaking on the topic Whether women have recognition for their contribution in poetry, Professor Niaz Zaman of the Department of English, said, 'Although Rokeya is better known as a writer of powerful prose, both fiction and non-fiction, she also wrote poetry.' She also announced that Women for Women hopes to publish an anthology of poetry and folk songs by the women poets of Bangladesh which will include poets of all times.

Niloufer Begum, a poet and a former Joint Secretary, noted, 'Though it is a common idea that women are not generally associated with poetry, this is incorrect. Every child grows up hearing songs, stories and rhymes told by their mother and grandmother. These oral stories have been handed down through different generations of women.'

Quoting from one of Rokeya's poems, Hosne Ara Kamal of the Institute of Social Welfare, questioned the audience on the length of time women would take to rectify the harm done by men on earth '

The students of the Women's Studies Department at the Dhaka University presented the findings of a research paper that portrayed the creativity of women who came up with hundreds of songs and folktales in oral forms. The presentation was unique as several students performed marriage songs that are passed on by women through the ages, during the session. Though most of these songs celebrate weddings, it also carried the feeling of the discrimination against women and by the reality of multiple marriages. Through these folk songs that they collected from different times, from their grandmothers to the slum dweller women, they pointed out that women voiced their own sorrows, commenting on their own lives and of Bangalee women in general.

Veteran woman activist and poet Taiubun Nahar Rashid, better known as TN Rashid, shared her experiences as well as the memories of the Liberation War. Economist Khaleda Salahuddin presided over the second session while poets Hosne Ara Kamal, Begum Razia Hossein, Kazi Rozy, Lilly Haque and Shamsuzzaman Noor recited poems and spoke about their experiences in writing and publishing poetry. This session was followed by a recitation from poetry by Begum Rokeya, Begum Sufia Kamal and Mumtaz Wadud.