Rokeya Lita

Rokeya Lita (Bengali: রোকেয়া লিটা) is a novelist and journalist from Bangladesh.

Life

Lita obtained her B.Sc. and first master's degree from the University of Dhaka. She received her second master's degree from the University of Liberal Arts of Bangladesh. She then worked for the fortnightly magazine Anondo Alo by Impress Telefilm Publications. She worked in Tarunkontho by The Daily Ittefak, banglanews24.com and Independent Television for a long time. Moreover, she worked in the Bangladesh Sanglap project of BBC. She writes columns regularly in different English and Bangla newspapers.

Lita's first novel is Shomokameeta (Homosexuality), which was published in the Amar Ekushey Boimela in 2015. Her first novel was very controversial, since the theme of the novel is a kind of taboo in a Muslim populated country like Bangladesh.^[1] The writer received a lot of threats from people of different groups. Her second novel Dumurer Phul (The Unseen Object) is published in 2016. In her second novel, the writer depicts the socio-political lives of indigenous people of different groups of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.^[2] Though the political vulnerability of this area made some indigenous people protest against the writings of the novelist,^[3] the writer has been successfully able to bring out some unknown facts regarding traditional indigenous laws, their flaws and impacts on the indigenous women.^[4] Currently, the write is working on several projects, which include a novel on the great Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

References

1. নানা বিতর্কে রোকেয়া লিটা এর 'সমকামিতা'. Muhurter Khobor (in Bengali). 8 February 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
2. Shehab, Ahmed (11 March 2016). "Real story behind 'Dumurer Phul'". The Independent (Dhaka). Retrieved 25 April 2016.
3. নিরাপত্তা চেয়ে জিডি করলেন লেখিকা রোকেয়া লিটা. Amader Shomoy (in Bengali). 10 February 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
4. Rumi, G.M. (1 February 2016). ডুমুরের ফুলে বাস্তবতা তুলে এনেছি. Manab Zamin (in Bengali). Retrieved 25 April 2016.