Rokeya was born in 1880 at the village Pairaband in Rangpur, now in Bangladesh.

Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, often known as Begum Rokeya, was a writer, feminist and social worker in Bengal in the early 20th century. She is the most famous for her efforts on behalf of gender equality and other social issues. She established the first school for Muslim girls.

Her father Jahiruddin Haidar Saber was a local landlord. Rokeya had two sisters, Karimunnesa and Humayra; and three brothers, one of whom died in childhood. Rokeya's eldest brother Ibrahim, and her sister Karimunnesa, both had great influence on Rokeya's life. Karimunnesa wanted to study Bangla. The family disliked this as, first of all, education for women was looked down upon, and secondly Muslims of the time preferred to study Arabic or Persian instead of the native language Bangla. Karimunnesa was made to stop her education and was married off at the age of fourteen.

Rokeya's own fate wasn't very different. She got married at the age of eighteen, to a Bihari widower named Sakhawat Hossain. However, both her husband and her brother encouraged her to learn Bangla and English as well as to write. In 1902, Rokeya started her literary career with a Bangla story named Pipasa (Thirst).

In 1909, Sakhawat Hossain died. Five months later, Rokeya established a Girl's High School in his memory and named it Sakhwat Memorial High School. It was established in Bhagalpur and started out with only five students. Dispute with relatives with her husband forced Rokeya to move the school to Kolkata in 1911. Rokeya remained busy with this school and her writings the rest of her life.

Major work

Sultana'r Shopno (Sultana's Dream)
Oborodhbashini (The woman in captivity)
Motichur
Paddorag (Essence of the lotus)

She was working on an essay entitled Narir Adhikar (The Rights of Women) when she died in December, 1932 for her heart problems.