Hina Saiyada

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will explore the life and work of the feminist thinker, writer, educator and political activist, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932), who lived across Kolkata and Patna, through the lens of virtual games to prompt conversations and contemporary interpretations. Hina Saiyada will be the Coordinator for this project. 

Hina is a writer, film editor and creative producer who engages in telling socially relevant stories in fiction and non-fiction. She has worked on several mainstream and alternative projects in India and South Africa and headed the creative team at India’s only channel for original history content, Epic Networks. She won a fellowship with Unreal Engine Women Creator’s Program 2021 and 2022 and is a Creative mentor for 20 Women Creators handpicked from South Asia for the program. Given her experience, Hina is best suited to be the Coordinator for this Foundation Project of IFA.  

Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) was born in a Bengali Muslim upper-class family in the small village of Pairaband, in the district of Rangpur, north of present-day Bangladesh. It was then a part of the British colonial province of Bengal Presidency. She was a multifaceted personality—a writer in Bangla, thinker, educationist, social activist, an advocate of women’s rights, and widely regarded as the pioneer of women’s education in the Indian subcontinent. Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain wrote the first Indian science fiction novel titled Sultana’s Dream, which was published in 1905. 

This project intends to not just explore her work but also understand the various aspects of Rokeya’s life that contributed to her work as a feminist thinker, writer, educator and political activist. It aims to study and unravel her story through a three-pronged approach—of critically studying Rokeya’s life, recontextualising the archive to contemporary concerns, and disseminating it. The findings from this project will be later presented through immersive media forms, including gaming. The gamified world would take the audience through two universes – one exploring the archive of Rokeya’s life and work as puzzles, and the other based on her book titled Sultana’s Dream. 

The outcomes of this project will be extensive audiovisual documentation, including interviews from the field, field notes from secondary and tertiary research and a digital archive. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be extensive audiovisual documentation, including interviews from the field, field notes and a download of the material of the digital archive in soft copy.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Research programme in how it explores the life and work of a forgotten trailblazer in feminist and literary histories whose discourse and contribution are especially relevant in the current world. Moreover, this is done through the innovative strategy of gaming. 

IFA will ensure that the project is implemented on time and that the funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is complete and deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with the Trustees.