A total of 53 girls bagged gold medals out of a total of 74 students.
Gulbarga:
Gulbarga University held its annual convocation on Wednesday where the girl students of the university outperformed the boys by bagging a maximum number of gold medals.
Poornima, a student of MA Kannada won 12 gold medals. She credited her family members and teachers for her excellent performance.
Arshiya Kauser, a student of MBA in finance and human resource management bagged 8 gold medals. In Spite of not belonging to an educated family, Arshiya excelled in her studies due to her sheer dedication and hard work. Arshiya’s father runs a garage and has gone to Saudi Arabia for 8 years.
A total of 53 girls bagged gold medals out of a total of 74 students.
The Vice-Chancellor of Gulbarga University Prof Dayanandaga Saran welcomed guests and participants in the convocation.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> India / by Mohammed Hussain Ahmed / April 29th, 2022
Ranganath and other medal winners K V Amrutha, Bibi Ruquyyah and N G Pooja, pose for shutterbugs on the sidelines of the convocation
A son of a daily-wager couple from Channagiri taluk in Davangere district hogged the limelight with 10 gold medals in MA Kannada at the 30th convocation of Kuvempu University at Jnana Sahyadri campus at Shankarghatta on Wednesday.
Ranganath, the son of Hunya and Gangibai Naik from Maravanji Tanda, had faced a lot of hardships in his life due to financial constraints, but that didn’t deter him from pursuing his post-graduation in Kannada literature and excelling at that. Ranganath did M.A in Kannada in 2019.
Speaking to DH, Ranganath credited his success to his love for the subject, hard work and professors Shivananda Kelaginamani, Rajiv Naik and Ravi Naik. He is pursuing research at Kuvempu University and wants to take up the teaching profession.
Golden girls
M R Sanchita of Mudigere in Chikkamagaluru district has bagged 5 gold medals in MSc in Biotechnology.
A daughter of coffee planter M B Ramesh and Radha, Sanchita is doing her internship at Biocon Limited Company. She aims to do research in pharmacy in the future.
Bibi Ruqayyah, the daughter of Mohamad Firoz and Zakaria Banu, bagged 5 gold medals in BCom.
As many as 23,732 students were given degree certificates in the event. A total of 119 golden medals were presented to 67 students.
The printed convocation address of Central University of Odisha Chancellor P V Krishna Bhat was read on the occasion.
source: http//www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State / by Nrupathunga SK / DHNS, Davangere / July 29th, 2020
She could leave her hometown Baramulla in Jammu & Kashmir to get quality education at a reputed institute in Lucknow only because her father supported her dreams.
Shafia Khursheed could not have expressed gratitude to her father in a better way than by winning a silver medal for BA (Hons) in Urdu.
“I owe it all to my father,” she said, while walking confidently to collect the medal during the convocation ceremony on Tuesday.
Like Shafia, Bihar’s Sumaila Ayub, the gold medal winner in BA (Hons) in economics and Lucknow’s Insha Rizvi, the silver medal winner in BA (Hons) in English, also owe their success to their father who fought against the conservative mindset which stop girls from going to far-flung places for studies.
“My father Khursheed Ahmad Lone is my pillar of support. To attain good education, he sent me not only outside the city but to a different state. I stayed back in the hostel, was regular with classes and visited home only once a year so that I can score high and make my father proud,” said Shafia, who wears hijab with pride, and aspires to become an Urdu professor.
Sumaila said, “I came all the way from Siwan, Bihar to Lucknow to achieve my goal of becoming an economics professor. This was not at all possible if my father Mohd Ayub had not given me the freedom to run after my dreams. I am the first gold medal winner of my family.”
“We are three sisters and our father Achchan Ali Rizvi not only gave us the best education but also stayed awake with me late at night to help me study,” said Insha.
Meanwhile, the winner of two gold medals, BA (hons) in computer science Deepali Singh’s from Malihabad said she had the support of both her father Satyapal Singh and her husband Sanjeev Singh to pursue education.
“I come from Malihabad daily to attend classes. My hard work paid off as I have won two gold medals,” said Deepali.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Lucknow News / by Mohita Tewari, TNN / March 23rd, 2022
Gazala’s interest in Sanskrit began at the government primary school in Nishatganj where her teacher ” Meena ma’am” taught her Sanskrit in class V
Gazala has been reciting Sanskrit shlokas, the Gayatri Mantra and Saraswati Vandana at cultural programmes in the University
Amid the row in Karnataka over Muslim students not being allowed to wer hijabs to college, a Muslim girl from Lucknow was adjudged the best Sanskrit scholar in November last year and was handed over gold medals by Dean Of Arts Prof Shashi Shukla during a faculty-level medal distribution ceremony on February 10.
Gazala’s achievement is proof that one’s skill has nothing to do with one’s religion, and everyone should have equal access to education. Gazala is the daughter of a daily wager who succumbed to cancer, and her two younger brothers and elder sister gave up their studies so that she could pursue hers.
Gazala has been reciting Sanskrit shlokas, the Gayatri Mantra and Saraswati Vandana at cultural programmes in the University.
She resides in a small one-room house located in the narrow lanes of Nishatganj. The 23-year-old wakes up at 5 am every day to offer namaz, do her household chores, and then study Sanskrit for seven hours straight to gain in-depth knowledge of the subject.
Gazala, without a doubt, wants to be a Sanskrit professor. She is now the winner of five gold medals for being the best student of MA (Sanskrit) at Lucknow University.
“These medals are won not by me but by my brothers Shadab and Nayab who left school and began working in a garage at the age of 13 and 10 years respectively so that I could study,” said Gazala.
Her elder sister Yasmeen, too, began working in a utensil shop while her mother Nasreen Bano took care of all of Gazala’s requirements.
“These five medals are for all five of us,” Gazala added.
When asked why she wants to be a Sanskrit professor, she said, “Bhashasu mukhya madhura divya girvan bharti. Satrapi kavyam madhuram tasmadpu subhashitam (Of all the languages, God’s own language Sanskrit is the mother: divine, and most lyrical. In Sanskrit, poetry is more melodious wherein good verses hold prime position).”
Gazala’s interest in Sanskrit began at the government primary school in Nishatganj where her teacher “Meena ma’am” taught her Sanskrit in class V.
“Thereafter I got admitted to Aryakanya Inter College and got a brilliant Sanskrit teacher, Archana Dwivedi. As a result, I scored very well,” she added.
“These are Nagma Sultan, who taught me Sanskrit during BA at Karamat Hussain Muslim Girls’ PG College, and Prayag Narayan Mishra, at LU during MA,” she said.
“My Sanskrit knowledge and interest often surprise people who ask me how being a Muslim I developed a love for the language. They ask me what I will do with it, but my family always supported me,” said Gazala.
She also said, “You can’t imagine how big these medals are for a person like me who just dreams of getting a study table and a laptop one day so that I don’t have to attend online classes on the phone.”
Gazala now wants to pursue a PhD in Vedic literature. Eventually, she wants to become a civil servant.
source: http://www.indiatimes.com / India Times / Home> Trending> Social Relevance / by Aishwarya Dharni / February 11th, 2022
Rural women of Bihar engaged in doing Kheta embroidery work. | Picture by author arrangement
Kheta is said to be a 500-year-old quilting heirloom practised exclusively by Shershahabdi women. Today, Kheta embroidery work is getting popular among non-Shershahabdi people with many women formerly associated with making Beedis taking to Kheta work to earn a decent livelihood.
Bihar :
Razia Khatoon of Kishanganj district of Bihar is getting 45 days of training in Kheta embroidery work. The training will be completed on May 14 and is done under Project Samarth, a scheme for capacity building in the textile sector carried out by the government of India. Earlier, she would make Beedi (plant leaf cigarettes) as a livelihood. She said Kheta has given her a chance to get rid of the health hazards that making Beedi brings on.
For several workers like Razia, the Kheta embroidery work, after acquiring proper training, is expected to be an alternate livelihood instead of the hazardous Beedi rolling job.
Believed to be a 500-year-old quilting heirloom practised exclusively by Shershahabdi women, today the Kheta embroidery work is getting popular among non-Shershahabdi people. Earlier, the intricate embroidery work was done on the layers of pre-used print Sarees and chequered Lungis etc, however, today the use of new clothes for making Khetas is widely done.
“Shershahabdi is a term used for Muslims of the Seemanchal area of Bihar who were settled in the region by emperor Shershah Suri. They are said to be ethnic Pashtuns mixed with local Surjapuris,” Ashraful Haque, a Shershahabdi, who co-ordinates with the Kheta weavers, told TwoCircles.net.
“Kheta is so intricate and organised that officials from Delhi first refused to believe it as a handcraft. When a live demo was done, they were immensely impressed. After the efforts of the local member of parliament Dr Mohammad Jawed, who raised this question of Kheta in the Parliament, we have got this opportunity to train our women not only in making more vibrant Khetas but also make them aware of its marketability,” he said.
To make Kheta embroidery work as a source of income, the artwork is being introduced in new forms with the use of new clothes. This embroidery work is now done on bedsheets, notebook covers, bags, pillow covers, mufflers, table clothes and handkerchiefs etc.
As of now, seventy thousand workers are believed to be associated with this artwork.
Noticeably, unlike other embroidery works, Kheta avoids figurative depictions which are considered to be forbidden in Muslim culture. The colours used for Kheta are generally bright like red, green, yellow, blue, and purple.
Razia, 24, is a Shershabadi woman, and like every other Shershahabadi female, she knew a bit of Kheta.
She expressed her happiness in learning new designs and colour patterns of Kheta. She used to earn around 1$ per day by Beedi making. She now hopes to double her income by part-time Kheta making.
More than the money she is happy as she considers Kheta work as “Izzat wala kam (a respectful job.)”
Another trainee Rulekha Khatoon’s husband is a migrant labourer. Khatoon is 25-years-old and is doing Kheta work regularly for the last six years. She learnt the technique from her mother and grandmothers. “Earlier we used to make Kheta only for family purposes like dowry and gifts etc. This training showed us that we can sell our work too. I hope to earn Rs. 3000-4000 per month with the work of 3-4 hours,” she said.
47-year-old Tajgara Khatoon is a top trainer of Kheta. She told TwoCircles.net, “A needle and some threads are required to do wonders in Kheta embroidery but not without great painstaking concentration. Shershahabdi women learnt it naturally but this training is giving them a wider range of patterns.”
Inderjit De and Saumya Pande of Zameen Astar Foundation write in their paper on Kheta embroidery, “The term Kheta stands for straight running stitches in the local dialect and refers to both embroidery and the product. In its similarity to the word, Khet meaning farm, the term Kheta may resemble the meticulous lines of the paddy fields.”
According to the website involved in the promotion and marketing of Kheta, “the array of designs offered by Kheta resonates with ripples of water, materials used in building make-shift huts, flowers, dry fruits, leaves, among many more.”
Yuman Hussain is the executive director of Azad India Foundation which is actively involved in promoting Kheta and arranging training for workers.
Yuman told TwoCirles.net that the “training helps in benchmarking the skill level and understanding the quality control. It formalizes the knowledge transfer and helps in keeping the next generation interested in continuing the quilting practice.”
The training also provides the trainees with an artisan card with benefits like insurance and access to participate in different exhibitions.
“On average, a Kheta artisan can make 4 to 6 quilts (96″ x 60″ size) in a year. They can earn anything between Rs 10000 to Rs 30000 per year depending on how many quilts they are making, sizes of quilts, the skill level of quilting etc,” she said.
Yuman rued that even though most Shershabadi women know how to make Kheta, the supply of skilled artisans is less. “The work needs to be done on both sides to build awareness in the market and a supply chain base for these quality quilted Khetas,” she added.
Sami Ahmad is a journalist based in Patna, Bihar. He tweets at @samipkb
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Lead Story / by Sami Ahmad, TwoCircles.net / May 05th, 2022
Modelling professional, rugby player and dermatologist among role models.
(From left) Bilkes Perveen, Saba Ali Firoz and Suraiya Rahman. Gautam Bose
A young woman set a condition to her would-be husband that she would marry only if she was allowed to pursue sports after wedding.
A girl whose neighbours once complained she wore jeans pursued her dream and became a fashion model, an entrepreneur and an anchor-presenter.
Several Muslim women who refused to tread the steps that many others wanted them to — get married, have children and live a domestic life — are now successful professionals. They came together at a gathering on Thursday afternoon.
The women will be feted by the NGO Friends of Alumni of Colleges Educational Institutes and Schools (FACES) and Mashriq Education Trust next week.
The Telegraph listened to some of their stories:
Bilkes Perveen
Anchor, model and entrepreneur
She was once frowned upon for wearing jeans. Bilkes, in her early 30s, who grew up on Convent Road in central Kolkata, said she was probably the only girl in her community in the neighbourhood who wore a pair of jeans.
“My neighbours were not happy with me wearing jeans. It was a very conservative space where I grew up,” she said. But she didn’t budge.
When she was 18, Bilkes took a night-shift job. She would go to her workplace wearing jeans or trousers. “I was 18. I wanted to be financially independent. Relatives and neighbours questioned why I took a night job. They wanted me to marry and have a kid instead of working. Fortunately, my parents stood by me,” Bilkes said on Thursday.
Life had better in store for her. At 19, she took up a job with a bank. It is while working there that she found her future husband, Tanmay Chatterjee. “Tanmay has always been very supportive. He wanted me to be a role model for others. After marriage I set up a company named Perveen and Chatterjee,” she said.
Bilkes wants to help women who have dreams but are afraid of defying the moral police. “My company trains Muslim women in personality development,” she said.
Bilkes herself hosts events as anchor and is also a model for a sari brand. “I am today happy with what I am doing,” she said.
Saba Ali Firoz
Rugby player and stylist
Saba had set a condition to her husband before marriage — she would pursue sports, her passion.
“My husband was fine with it,” said the 39-year-old mother of two.
She continues to do it despite unsolicited comments meant to fetter her. “I had to wear short skirts for playing, for which I had to hear comments like ‘you are not Sania Mirza’. Wearing a short skirt is a taboo,” she said.
Daughter of a retired police officer, Saba, a resident of Metropolitan off EM Bypass, got inducted into sports from her early teens by her father. “I did sprints and long jumps. It was my father who inspired me to take up athletics.”
Saba’s interest in sports spans disciplines. She has represented her club CCFC in rugby. She has played darts, badminton and tennis. She has also inculcated the passion for sports in her kids. Her 15-year-old son has represented the state in swimming and her 9-year-old daughter is training in swimming and basketball.
Imran Zaki, president of Faces, one of the organisers of Thursday’s get-together, said Muslim women were usually not encouraged by the society to take up sports and continue that after marriage. “It is to Saba’s credit and her will that she has managed to do what she loves. She is the one to emulate,” said Zaki.
As a professional, Saba runs her own studio at her home. She is a stylist and a make-up artist.
Suraiya Rahman
Gynaecologist and owner of a hospital
Suraiya earned her MBBS degree from Bihar in 1967. She was the only Muslim woman in her batch. She later completed her MD from Kolkata in 1975. Again she was the only Muslim woman in her batch.
“There were objections from relatives and acquaintances. They thought it was disgraceful for a woman to go to a convent school and a medical college,” she said. “But my parents never let those objections reach me. My younger sister is a gynaecologist,” she said.
If Suraiya was a rare example in her student days, she is one even now. At 76, Suraiya is running a hospital on Dilkusha Street near bridge number 4 in Park Circus. She does procedures, looks after the daily administration and advises junior doctors. “I am only 76,” she said when applauded for being so active at her age.
Farah Khan, director, Mashriq Education Trust, said: “Suraiya Rahman is a role model for the entire community. So many young doctors from our community, both women and men, look up to her.”
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Kolkata / Home> My Kolkata / News> Women’s Empowerment / by Subhajoy Roy / June 10th, 2022
Uzma has chosen Lehigh University and will be joining in August 2022. She has also been awarded a one-time relocation allowance by the university.
Jamia Millia Islamia student Uzma has been offered 100 per cent tuition fee waiver
Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) alumna Uzma Khan, who completed her MSc electronics course from the Department of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Jamia in 2021 has received offers to do a fully-funded PhD from six prestigious American universities. She applied for 100 per cent scholarship in nine US Universities and received offers from six, said the varsity. Her area of research will be ‘underwater wireless communication and signal processing.’
Uzma has been offered 100 per cent tuition fee waiver along with a monthly stipend for an on-campus job of research and teaching assistant in six US universities — Lehigh University, University of Cincinnati, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, SUNY (State University of New York) Buffalo, SUNY Albany and University of New Hampshire.
Uzma has chosen Lehigh University and will be joining in August 2022. She has also been awarded a one-time relocation allowance by the university. “I am joining Lehigh University because my educational qualifications and research interest is in complete coherence with my potential supervisor there,” said she.
The wireless and signal processing lab she is going to join is doing cutting edge research on current and future technologies and will be best suited for her research area which is underwater wireless communication and signal processing, she explained.
After scoring good scores in IELTS and GRE she became eligible to apply to US universities. After sending e-mails to professors with whom her research interest coincides, she subsequently cleared technical interviews with a committee composed of members of the lab/department she wanted to get admitted to.
Uzma has also secured topped in her class during master’s studies at Jamia and for that she will get awarded with a gold medal in upcoming convocation.
She has also received a provisional offer for INSPIRE fellowship by DST, Ministry of Science and Technology.
Earlier, she got placed as system engineer in TCS and Infosys but she chose not to join as her interest lies in research.
source: http://www.news18.com / News18 / Home> News> Education-Career / by Education & Career Desk, News18.com / June 09th, 2022
Amid the gloom, there is a whiff of fresh air. A young woman photojournalist has made Kashmir proud by winning the prestigious Pulitzer Prize this year.
Sanna Irshad Mattoo became the first Kashmiri woman photographer to win the Prize.
She is among the three from India to have won the award this year. Besides, Sanna, slain Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui and Adnan Abidi have won the award for their images about Covid’s toll in India.
Siddiqui was killed last year in Afghanistan.
Sanna Irshad Mattoo has won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize award in the feature photography category for 2022.
“Congratulations to @adnanabidi, @mattoosanna, @AmitDav46549614, the family and friends of the late, @dansiddiqui, and @Reuters. #Pulitzer,” Pulitzer announced on Twitter.
Sanna, who holds a Master’s in Convergent Journalism from the Central University of Kashmir, has her work published in international media outlets, including Al Jazeera, TIME, and TRT World. She has also done a fellowship with the prestigious Magnum Foundation in 2021.
“Sanna Irshad Mattoo is a photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Kashmir. Ranging from groundbreaking news to in-depth storytelling, her work concentrates on depicting the tension between the seeming ordinariness of life and the stark symbols of a menacing militarised milieu of Kashmir. Her work has been published in newspapers and magazines around the world and has been screened and exhibited in various exhibitions and festivals. She presently contributes to Reuters as a Multimedia Journalist,” Sanna’s Pulitzer introduction said.
In 2020, three Jammu and Kashmir photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan, and Channi Anand won the prestigious Pulitzer award. Established in 1917, Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the US.
source: http://www.indiatomorrow.net / India Tomorrow / Home> Featured> Inspiring Personality / by Ishfaq-ul-Hassan / May 10th, 2022
Monday was a momentous day in the history of the school run by the South Western Railway Women’s Welfare Organisation (SWRWWO) in Hubballi.
It held a mega felicitation function for its only student in its 32-year-old history who cracked the Civil Services Exam in the results announced a week ago. What makes it all the more remarkable is that Tahseen Banu Dawadi, the only Muslim woman to clear the exams out of 26 in the State, is the daughter of a retired goods train guard. Dawadi secured 482nd rank in her second attempt.
Khadar Basha, who retired from Railways as a chief trains clerk in 2012, told TNIE, “I was very happy when the results were out. I was confident she would clear it. My two sons and two daughters are all good in academics. It was a proud moment for me when the General Manager, SWR and the Divisional Railway Manager, Hubballi invited us to their office and honoured my daughter.”
Dawadi, 24, who completed her B.Sc in Agriculture from University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad in 2019, set her sights on the civil services exams when she was studying in the final year of her graduation.
She told The New Indian Express, “My father and mother Hasina Begum supported me and even sent me to Mumbai Hajj House in Mumbai for my coaching, which is conducted by the Ministry of Minority Affairs. I could not clear even the preliminary exams in my first attempt in 2020. But in my next attempt in 2021, I have cleared the prelims, mains and the interview. I was confident I would clear it as I have been good in academics throughout.” She also took coaching from the Residential Coaching Academy of Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi.
Dawadi says, “It was a surprise for me that I secured 482nd rank out of 680. I had thought I would be in the bottom five. I am also the only Muslim girl from Karnataka to clear the exams,” she said. Sharing her keenness to take up a career in bureaucracy, she said, “I was keen on civil services as it directly gives one a chance to serve the society. I always wanted to be in a government job.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by S Lalitha, Express News Service / June 08th, 2022
Thiruvananthapuram girl enters India Book of Records for Warli paintings
Thiruvananthapuram :
Najiya Navas, a graduate from Thiruvananthapuram, has entered the India Book of Records by drawing pictures in the technique of Warli painting, an art form unique to the tribal community of North Sahyadri Range in Maharashtra.
A Warli painting made by her of 5 inches in length and breadth has fetched her the India Book of Records recognition. Her entry breaks the previous record of a 10-inch length and breadth Warli painting.
Najiya has not learned painting formally and picked up the tricks of the trade from the internet. She has drawn more than 100 pictures so far.
Talking to IANS, Najiya said that it was during the Covid-19 lockdown that she entered the world of Warli painting and has already sold several of her drawings online and earned money from it.
She said that she is planning to learn drawing and painting in a systematic manner from Mumbai in the coming days. Najiya has already sent her pictures to the Guinness World Records.
Najiya is the daughter of Navas and Najma of Kaniyauram in Thiruvananthapuram.— IANS
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Indian Muslim> Women / by IANS / June 05th, 2022
