In U.P more Muslims go to school, spend on girls’ education

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education

UTTAR PRADESH :

A representative image

Indian Muslims as a community, due to various social and political influences, have remained educationally backward. The Sachar Committee Report in 2006 revealed the dismal state of education among Muslims. The report was an eye-opener for the community and led to the efforts to spread education among Muslims. Muslims introspected and asked how come a community that believes in “Read with the name of your Lord who created (everything)”  – the first Quranic revelation – lagged in education. Not only did the community urge the country’s political leadership to address it but also made efforts to improve the state of affairs.

The efforts have not gone in vain. The data compiled in the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) by the Union Ministry of Education, points towards a remarkable increase in school-going Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India.

Changing trends among Muslims

The UDISE survey reveals that in U.P, 4,53,62,059 students were studying in schools, from pre-nursery to class XII, during the 2019-20 session. Out of these, 70,18,201, or 15.47%, were Muslims. Because the Muslims are 19.26% of the population in the state, this number seems insufficient, which it is. But, if we consider the fact that seven years ago, in the 2012-13 session, out of 4,69,61,179 school-going children only 52,49,664, or 11.18%, were Muslims, the significance of the present numbers becomes evident.

The numbers show that the proportion of Muslims is steadily increasing and moving towards their proportion in the population, i.e. 19.26%. From the 2015-16 session till 2019-20, the percentage of Muslims among school-going children has been registered to be 11.08%, 12.40%, 12.32%, 13.88%, and 15.47% in successive years. If we talk in pure numbers, in 2015-16, there were 53,63,670 Muslim kids out of 4,84,06,853 students. In 2019-20, this figure has increased by more than 16 lakh to reach 70,18,201 as the total school enrolment in the state dropped by more than 30 lakhs. 

Graphic explanation of the changing trend in Muslim education-1

In order to understand the recent awakening in the community, one needs to look at the new enrollments. At the entry-level, Muslim students have reached very near to their proportion in the population. In the 2019-20 session, out of 51,48,352 students enrolled in class I, 9,71,229 were Muslims. This translates into 18.86% of the total class I students. It is a significant increase from 2018-19 when 16.92% of class I students were found to be Muslims, and in the year before the ratio was at 16.23%. 

The people working in the education sector among the Muslims of U.P often complain about the high dropout rates. As we go up the education levels, the proportion of Muslims tends to decrease. The apprehension is true, but the recent trends show an improvement in Muslim representation in higher classes. The survey found 3,73,304 Muslim students out of a total of 30,73,228 studying in class X, during the 2019-20 session. This makes 12.15% of the total class X students in the state, a significant rise from 2016-17 when only 7.65% of the total class X students were from the community. In the last four academic sessions, the proportion of Muslims in class X is, 7.65%, 8.38%, 10.90%, and 12.15%, successively. 

At Higher Secondary (+2), XI & XII, the proportion of Muslims enrolled has increased from 7.24% in the 2016-17 to 10.48% in the 2019-20 session. In successive sessions this proportion has been registered as 7.24% in 2016-17, 7.81% in 2017-18, 10.08% in 2018-19 and 10.48% in 2019-20. 

These numbers are no yardstick of the quality of education Muslims are availing. To get an idea we need to look at the type of schools at which these students are enrolled. As a matter of fact, in U.P, it is commonly believed that private schools are in a better condition than schools owned by the Department of Education. Out of the total 2,20,69,303 students enrolled in private schools, 25,95,073, or 11.76%, were found to be Muslims in 2019-20. This was a considerable increase from 2016-17 when 8.07% of the private school students were Muslims. In the last four academic sessions since 2016-17, the Muslim proportion in private schools was found to be 8.07%, 8.48%, 10.38%, and 11.76% respectively. 

Changing trends in Muslims’ education Graph-II

On the other hand, in the schools of the Department of Education, Muslim proportion remained more or less constant. In 2016-17, 12.34% of the students at the Department’s schools were Muslims which has shown a marginal increase at 12.50% in 2019-20. Another very important aspect of education among Muslims is that almost one out of every five school-going Muslims attends a Wakf/ Madrasa Board recognized Madrasa/ Maktab. In the 2019-20 session, 19.76% of the Muslim children were enrolled in these Madrasas. It is an increase from 2016-17 when 16.49% of Muslims were attending these institutions. But this shift can be attributed to a positive shift. In 2016-17, 5.31% of Muslim kids were attending unrecognized Madrasas which came down to 3.10% in 2019-20. It is a welcome change that Madrasa-going children are attending recognized Madrasa of Madrasa / Wakf Board instead of unrecognized Madrasas. 

Prof. Aquil Ahmed (Statistics & OR), AMU, believes that an increase in enrolments in private schools and status quo in Department of Education’s schools is a pointer that this increase in education among Muslims owes itself to the efforts from within. In recent years, he says that the community has started understanding the importance of education and hence without much help from the government people have started spending on education more and sending their children to schools.            

Bhim Rao Ambedkar said that women’s education and empowerment were the yardstick to measure the development of a society. The survey gives us immense hope as we analyze the data on girl students among Muslims. It is an open secret that ours is a patriarchal society. Irrespective of religion or caste, people discriminate against girls. It was not a surprise to see that, in 2019-20, out of 45,39,933 students enrolled in Higher Secondary (+2) in the state, 54.30% were boys and 45.70% were girls. Similarly, in class X, 54.46% of the total students were boys. On a similar pattern, for the same session, 55.17% of students enrolled in private schools were boys during the same session. But, the sweet surprise was the ratio of girls among Muslim students of U.P. In Higher Secondary,

Changing trends in Muslims’ education Graph-III

In 2019-20, 50.31% of the total Muslim students were girls while their proportion was 48.31% in class X. In private schools also enrolment of boys among Muslims was 53.96%. This means, among Muslims, proportionally more girls are being admitted in private schools than the average of the state. This positive approach towards women’s education is a welcome trend.       

The survey suggests that Muslims as a community are paying more attention to women’s education. As discussed above, in 2019-20, 10.48% of the total enrolments in Higher Secondary (+2) belonged to the Muslim community. If we look at gender then we find that, in 2019-20, of all the girls enrolled in +2, 12.06% were Muslims while 9.67% of the boys came from the community. This trend is a feature of all the preceding years as well. In 2019-20, in private schools out of all the girls enrolled 12.08% were Muslims while the proportion among boys was 11.50%. 

Interestingly, in higher secondary education in private schools, the proportion of Muslims among girls stands at 10.22% while among boys it is 8.94%.  In each session we find more Muslim girls taking admissions in higher secondary than Muslim boys. The proportion of Muslims among girls is much higher than their proportion among boys. For class X, in 2019-20, 12.88% of girls were Muslims while among boys they were 11.53%. The trend breaks the stereotype that Muslims do not send their girls to school. Moreover, it shows that Muslims are moving away from the orthodox traditions faster than the other communities.

Prof. Nazura Usmani (AMU), believes that access of younger generations to religious texts has made this women empowerment possible. Muslims, on understanding the true message of religion, are breaking the shackles of traditional orthodoxies, which kept women caged for centuries. Now, people are understanding that women’s education is part of religion and also there is growing acceptance in the community towards economically working women. She says that those people who do not identify themselves with revolutionary feminism are accepting that women should be educated and economically independent.  

The UDISE survey report brings out a positive trend of increasing education among Muslims. Though the community is still lagging the developments of recent years instills hope. Moreover, the survey brings out that Muslims are showing more gender parity when it comes to education than other communities.  

(Saquib Salim is a Historian and a Writer)

source: http: //www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Stories / by Saquib Salim / December 09th, 2021

I became a scientist because of Fatima Sheikh

Amazing Feats, Science & Technology, Scientists (wef. August 27th,m 2023), Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

UTTAR PRADESH :

Doodle of Fatima Sheikh issued by Google

It was a cold day in February 2016. A woman from a small town of Uttar Pradesh received her Ph.D. at the 63rd Annual Convocation of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh. She was the first from her clan to have taken admission to AMU in 2003. Her parents never attended college; her four brothers took up family businesses at a younger age. The woman in the discussion is me. I am Mahino Fatima, a Muslim girl from a backward caste who became a scientist against all odds.

pix: heritagetimes.in / Dr. Mahino Fatima

Friends, relatives, and peers celebrated my becoming a scientist as a consequence of my hard work and perseverance. In my heart of hearts, I knew this day has not come only because of me; I was grateful for the privilege of education that I was born with.

Most importantly, I should not forget Fatima Sheikh. If not for her, I would never have become a scientist. Lakhs of women who are successful because of education would have remained illiterate but for Fatima Sheikh’s pioneering work.

How can I, a woman, forget that my foremothers were not allowed to learn how to write? How can I, a backward caste woman, forget that my forefathers were not allowed to receive an education? Today, when we look at our curriculum, we find that women scientists, economists, philosophers, and intellectuals are negligible in comparison to men. Famous philosopher, Jaques Derrida, once remarked that no woman was a philosopher. His observation was true, but he did not delve into the reason. How can a woman become a philosopher when men for centuries controlled the development of her intellectual capacities in the name of culture? 

In our society, men would not let women learn the art of writing for the fear that if literate these women would communicate to ‘lovers’ through letters. Bibi Ashraf, a late 19th-century educationist, recalled how she was not allowed to learn reading and writing like male members of her family. She secretly learned to write. The secret came out when during the revolt of 1857; she had to write a letter to her father and uncle. Instead of receiving accolades, she was abhorred by men in her family. Her uncle was furious and made her take an oath that she would never write a letter to a man. Similar was the story of Rassundari Devi, who secretly learned writing by stealing books from her son. How do we expect women scientists in such a society? Still, a large section of our society would not let women study more than what is needed in the ‘marriage market’.

In this society, Fatima Sheikh, along with Savitribai Phule, started a school for girls in 1848. Yes, 1848. 26 years before Sheikh Abdullah, who later founded a women’s college at Aligarh, and 32 years before Begum Rukaiya Sakhawat, doyen of women education, were born, Fatima had started a girls’ school and taught herself. Today, that small classroom of 9 girls has prepared lakhs of educated women. 

Today women are asking for gender parity in opportunities and pay scales. Thanks to Fatima, women today are educated to understand their worth and assert their rights. 

Fatima was a pioneer; she was followed by Begum Rukaiya, Begum Wahid, Muhammadi Begum. A revolution starts with an idea. Fatima’s was the idea that put women of India in general and Muslim women in particular, on the march to empowerment through education.

Today, I thank Fatima for making me a scientist. Nobody knows how many bright women before 1848 had been deprived of education and were not allowed to dream of becoming a scientist. But, we surely know that after 1848, women have slowly entered different fields through education and are today competing with men to have their rightful place in the books, laboratories, and society.  

(Author is a neurobiologist with her major research on depression and Alzheimer’s)

source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Stories / by Mahino Fatima / Saquib Salim / January 09th, 2022

Aligarh and Women’s Education: A Brief Overview

Amazing Feats, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Leaders, Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH :

Women’s education in nineteenth-century India was no easy task. In the case of Muslim women, the task was even more difficult due to their triply marginal identity: as colonial subjects, as women, and as Muslims. Not only did the custom of purdah added to their seclusion from the social and cultural changes, their men hated everything about the western cultural influence (being displaced as rulers by the British). As a result, the middle class (the initiators of reform) was to develop late among the Indian Muslims than their Hindu counterparts. Nevertheless, by the late nineteenth century, a middle-class among the Indian Muslims was fledging. For this, no institution of the nineteenth-century can be given more commendation than Aligarh Muslim University.

Formed in 1920, the Aligarh Muslim University just completed its hundred years as a modern residential university. There has been a perception that the Aligarh Movement, for whatever reasons, neglected the issue of modern education to Muslim women. But there is more to this argument, some things to be explored, some to be re-interpreted.

This article, therefore, attempts to trace the genesis and trajectory of women’s educational reform in Aligarh through the profile of a woman reformer – Waheed Jahan (1886-1939), wife of Shaikh Abdullah (1874-1965), and the co-founder of Aligarh’s first girls’ school. Waheed Jahan was a pioneer of Muslim women’s education at Aligarh in the early twentieth century. Her role in ending the relative isolation of Indian Muslim women, while at the same time preserving the Muslim identity of the community, is worthwhile to recall. Her biography was published in Urdu by her husband in 1954. [1]

The educational reforms among Indian women were mostly started by men. Such men started with writings advocating women’s education. In this regard, among Muslims, Nazir Ahmad (1833-1912) published his novel, Mirat-ul-Arus, in 1869; Altaf Hussain Hali (1837-1914) published Majlis-un-Nissa, in 1874. Soon, magazines and journals followed, like the Tahzib un-Niswan by Sayyid Mumtaz Ali (1860-1935), the Khatoon by Shaikh Abdullah and Waheed Jahan, and the Ismat by Rashid-ul- Khairi (1868-1936). Gail Minault regards these as ’The Big Three.’ [2] Apart from literary activism, others tried more practical measures, like opening schools for Muslim girls.

As the movement intensified, so did the opposition against it. In such an atmosphere, even the talk of women’s education by a woman herself was quite a chivalry.

Yet, unexpectedly, there were women who defied the odds and broke the ground. Rashid-un-Nissa of Patna, became the first Muslim woman to write an Urdu novel, Islah-un-Nissa in 1881 (published in 1894), when writing was a distant dream for Muslim women. Rokeya Sakhawat Husain (1880-1932), a widow herself, pioneered Muslim women’s education in Bengal. Muhammadi Begam (1878-1908) edited one of the leading ladies’ home journals, Tahzib-un-Niswan. One such icon of women’s education at Aligarh was Waheed Jahan.

Waheed was born in 1874 in a landholding family in Delhi. Her father Mirza Ibrahim Beg was of Mughal ancestry, serving as a minor municipal official in Delhi. Her only brother, Bashir Mirza went to the Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO Colege), Aligarh, where he befriended Shaikh Abdulla (a Kashmiri convert to Islam, named Thakur Das before conversion).

As was the custom, Waheed received no formal schooling. She learnt Urdu and Persian from her father and arithmetic and elementary English from a visiting English tutoress.

Ismat Chughtai, in her autobiography, Kagazi hai Pairahan, records, how Waheed Jahan, before her marriage, had dreamt of establishing a school for the girls. She would gather the servants’ children and teach them, and soon the rudimentary school became popular among her neighbours. It is noteworthy that, at a time when others (mostly men) were still imagining a school for girls (that too only in their writings), Waheed, in her own limited capacity, was practically making a difference.

In 1902, Waheed married Shaikh Abdullah – a lawyer at Aligarh, and an ardent supporter of women’s education since his school days. Following the marriage to a woman with some education, he began to consider concrete ways to promote Muslim women’s education. The Mohammadan Education Conference (MEC, founded at Aligarh by Sir Syed Ahmad in 1886) had established a Women’s Education Section (WES) in 1896 to start a Normal School for girls and to train female (zenana) teachers. In 1902, Shaikh became the secretary of WES, which by then had merely achieved anything beyond discussions and debates around women’s education.

Luckily, Waheed’s marriage to a reformist like Abdullah helped her materialize her dream. To champion women’s education, they started an Urdu monthly, the Khatoon, in 1904 with Waheed Jahan as editor. Begum Sultan Jahan (1858-1930) of Bhopal, Binnat Nazir-al-Baqir, Suharwardiya Begum, and Binnat Nasiruddin Haider were some important female contributors to the journal.

The paucity of funds made it impossible to start a Normal School. Waheed Jahan advised her husband to start a primary school for the elite (Sharif) girls. In 1904, the Mohammadan Educational Conference passed a resolution to start a girls’ school in Aligarh. Waheed proved to be an efficient manager and fund-raiser for the cause.

Her capacities as a fund-raiser and organizer were displayed in 1905, when she organized a meeting of Muslim women in Aligarh, with participants from far corners of Lahore and Bombay. Judging from the context of the time when purdah among Muslims was so harsh, even the idea of organizing such an event was quite revolutionary.

Aware of women education in Turkey and Egypt and its benefits to society, she tried to convince other women; she said:

When women meet among themselves, there will be more solidarity. . . Now there is a division between educated and uneducated women. Uneducated women, who do not go out, think that respectability is confined to the four walls of their houses. They think that people who live beyond those walls are not respectable and not worthy of meeting. But God has ordained education for both men and women, so that such useless ideas can be dispensed with. . . [3]

The meeting was a success, the exhibition of women’s craft secured good funds; finally, the women passed a resolution favouring a girls’ school in Aligarh. In October 1906, Aligarh Zenana Madrasa (girls’ school) opened its doors, and seventeen students were enrolled. Urdu, arithmetic, needlework, and the Quran formed the curriculum. Leaving her own children in servants’ care, Waheed took the responsibility of supervising the school. Within six months, the number of students increased to fifty-six. Waheed’s efforts secured the school a cumulative grant of Rs. 15,000 and a monthly grant of Rs. 250. By 1909, the school taught 100 students and shifted to a larger building.

The opposition to girls’ school took new forms. One amusing story is recorded in Shaikh Abdullah’s Urdu memoir (1969), Mushahedaat o Taaassuraat. [4] Maintaining purdah, the girls were carried in daulis (curtained carriages) to school, and some street urchins started harassing the school going girls by lifting the curtains of their daulis. The mischief only stopped when Shaikh gave one of the miscreants a good thrashing. In another incident, Shaikh confronted a tehsildar who had accused the school of making the girls insolent.

When the Abdullahs proposed a girls’ boarding school, it invited opposition from elite corners. The European principal of MAO College, W.A.J Archbold; Ziauddun Ahmad (1873-1947); and Viqar-ul-Mulk (1841-1917) opposed vehemently.

The couple, however, succeeded in 1914, witnessing the transformation of the school into a boarding school. The same year saw the culmination of Muslim women’s activism by the foundation of Anjuman-i-Khavatin-i-Islam (AKI) at the same venue. Begum Sultan Jahan (1858-1930) of Bhopal graced the foundational ceremony of the boarding school, felicitating Waheed; she urged other women to follow her example. Fyzee sisters, Abru Begum, Begum Shafi, and Begum Shah Nawaz were the other dignitaries.

The Begum was already active in various social and educational reform projects. She served as the first chancellor of AMU from 1920 until her death in 1930. Having a woman as the first chancellor was indeed a historic feat.

Only nine girls became the residents, most of them from Waheed’s own family. By the end of the year, the enrollment rose up to twenty-five. This was the result of what the historian Gail Minault calls as Abdullahs’ portrayal of girls’ school as an extension of girls’ families and also of their own. To make the school successful, Waheed used to invite the parents of girls to Aligarh, for a few days stay in the hostel, to convince them that the conditions there were safe enough to let their daughters stay, records Sheikh Abdullah, in his Mushahedaat o Taaassuraat. She supervised everything – housekeeping, laundry, shopping, and even tasted each dish cooked for the girls.

It could be said that Waheed Jahan acted as a foster mother to these girls, counselling, nursing, and treating them as a part of her own extended family. They called each other as Apa (sister), Shaikh Abdullah as Papa Mian, and Waheed Jahan as Ala Bi. This created a sense of sisterhood among the girls.

This familial system of ethos still remains unique to the Aligarh Women’s College.

The boarding school project contained other complex problems, such as maintaining proper purdah. Both Shaikh and Waheed agreed that the purdah practiced in the Sharif society was more restrictive than purdah sanctioned by the Shari’a (Islamic Law). But to secure social acceptance for their school, they chose to go with strict purdah, building fortress-like walls to fend off the male gaze, students’ mails were scrutinized, and only close relatives were allowed inside.

This accommodation of purdah within the gamut of their reformist agenda, to gain social acceptance, was indeed very astute of the Abdullahs. Thus, Waheed Jahan succeeded in preserving both the elite and the “Muslim” identity of herself and her community while simultaneously breaking the relative isolation of Indian Muslim women. The girls’ school became an intermediate college in 1925 and started degree classes in 1937 (with 250 students). Waheed passed away in 1939, only after seeing her school becoming a degree college.

The relation between education and social change is complex, varying from culture to culture and among different classes in the same culture.

True, that Aligarh movement was late to include women’s education in its fold. Even the school founded by the Abdullahs did not fulfil all its expectations – their choosing an exclusively elite (Sharif) clientele limited the impact of their reforms.

But their efforts indeed bore fruits; the educational reforms for Muslim women at Aligarh contributed to many social developments. After the formation of AKI in 1914, the number of meetings and associations (for women-only) increased rapidly in the 1930’s. The growth in the number of educated women created a market for new publications for and by women.

The Aligarh Women’s College produced many women of substance, who made sure to shine above and beyond purdah, some figuratively and others literally. These ladies excelled in various fields, from teaching to medicine to writing.

Rashid Jahan, Waheed Jahan’s daughter, became a successful physician, a radical writer, and a staunch communist. Her short stories in Angare (1932) became the opening salvo of the Urdu Progressive Writers Movement (1936). Rakhshanda Jalil, in her biographical work on Rashid, A Rebel and her Cause: The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan, writes that Angare was a “document of disquiet”; a self-conscious attempt “to shock people out of their inertia, to show how hypocrisy and sexual oppression had so crept in everyday life”. Rashid became an inspiration for a generation of women writers such as Ismat Chughtai, Attia Hosain, Sadia Begum Sohravi, and Razia Sajjad Zaheer, among others.

Like all other reform movements of that time period, the Aligarh movement had its limitations too. For a start, it did prioritize men’s education over women’s, for various reasons (a story that needs to be told elsewhere), but by the early twentieth century, things were changing. The Aligarh movement not only took up the cause of women’s education actively, but it also let women (Like Wahid Jahan) be a part of the process.

Notes

[1] Shaikh Abdullah, Savanih-i- Umri-i- Abdullah Begum, Aligarh, 1954

[2] Gail Minault, Gender, Language, and Learning: Essays in Indo-Muslim Cultural History, Permanent Black Publications, Ranikhet, 2009, p. 87

[3] Khatoon 3, 1 (Jan 1906) “Ladies Conference”, pp 7-8

[4] Shaikh Abdullah, Mushahidat-wa-Ta’asurat, Female Education Association, Aligarh, 1969, pp. 234-6

(Ishrat Mushtaq is PhD Candidate, Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University and Sajad Hassan Khan is PhD. Candidate, Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University. Article courtesy: Mainstream Weekly.)

Janata Weekly does not necessarily adhere to all of the views conveyed in articles republished by it. Our goal is to share a variety of democratic socialist perspectives that we think our readers will find interesting or useful. —Eds.

source: http://www.janataweekly.org / Janata Weekly / Home / by Ishrat Mushtaq and Saad Hassan Khan / January 24th, 2021

Muslim Leadership and Women’s Education: Uttar Pradesh, 1886–1947

Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Education, Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , , , , , , , , , ,

Lucknow, UTTAR PRADESH / Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH :

By Nasreen Ahmed / First Edition Pub. October 2012, x+190 pages, 8.5 x 5.5 in. / ISBNs: 978-81-88789-82-5

This is a broad study of the efforts at modern education for Muslim women, especially with reference to the Aligarh Movement and the initiatives inspired by it in other parts of UP, namely Lucknow, Allahabad, Rampur and Agra. The role of Muslim leaders, both male and female, the nature of the problems they encountered and the manner in which they countered them is the major thrust of this study. In the process we are introduced to the major debates on women and education during the course of late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century.

The author breaks many stereotypes as we learn that it was the more traditional among the Muslim leadership, rather than the ‘modernisers’, who pioneered women’s education and that Muslim women themselves played a major role in nurturing the first institutions under their personal care.

Based on an extensive range of primary sources and contemporary writings in English, Urdu, Hindi and Persian, this is a definitive work in many ways, gives food for thought on developments other than its main theme and will be useful to those concerned with women’s studies, social reform, education and modernity in colonial India, particularly with reference to Muslims.

CONTENTS

  1. Muslim Women’s Education in the Nineteenth Century: A Study of the Traditionalist Attitudes
  2. Efforts for the Education of Muslim Women, 1857-1885
  3. Aligarh Movement and Muslim Women’s Education, 1875-1902
  4. Female Education Section: Early Discussions, 1896-1904
  5. A School for Muslim Girls at Aligarh
  6. From Female Normal School to Muhammadan Girls’ School, 1906-1910
  7. A Degree College Managed by the University
  8. Establishment of Schools by Other Indigenous Efforts: Lucknow, Allahabad, Rampur and Agra.

Cover photo: Papa Mian (Sheikh Abdullah, 1864-1965) and Waheed Jahan Begum (1884-1939), founders of the first school for Muslim girls in Aligarh. Back cover: Carriage used to bring girls to school, accompanied by a female escort. (1923)

Nasreen Ahmed

Nasreen Ahmed (1954-2009) studied at the Aligarh Muslim University and later taught at the Karamat Husain College, Lucknow.

She is a pioneer among historians on concerns of Muslim women’s education, as her early essays on the theme published in the late 1970s show. Thereafter she presented her work at various national conferences and seminars. Her studies are rich in sociological data: she records a great deal that feminist scholars writing on Muslim women today have missed. She is author of many research articles published in the Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, a journal of frontier scholarship in history.

source: http://www.threeessays.com / Three Essays Collective

A College in Memory of Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ Birthday Fete

Education, , , , , , , , ,

Kayamkulam (Alappuzha District), KERALA :

A college has been named after Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ birthday celebrated as Seerat-un-Nabi across the globe. The 60-year old Muslim institution – Milad-E-Sherief Memorial College – stands tall at Kayamkulam in Alappuzha district in God’s Own Country. Thanks to the visionary Alhaj P K Kunju Sahib, a former Finance Minister in Kerala between 1967-69, who was instrumental in establishing the institution.

Perhaps in a first of its kind, a Muslim minority institution in Kayamkulam situated in Alappuzha district in God’s Own Country has been named ‘Milad-E-Sherief Memorial College’ (MSM) reminiscing the birthday of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ celebrated as Seerat-un-Nabi across the globe.

The timely info was shared by journalist Colachet Azheem in his Facebook page which sheds light on the munificence of Alhaj P K Kunju Sahib, a former Finance Minister in Kerala between 1967-69, who established the institution.

Flipping through the pages of MSM College portal, it revealed that late Alhaj P.K. Kunju Sahib as a realisation of his long-cherished dream of cultural advancement of the uneducated people of central Travancore named the college as Milad-E-Sherief Memorial College.

Interestingly, it stands as a monument speaking volumes about Prophet Muhammad’s teachings and preachings and his way of life. A veritable champion of the masses, he envisioned that the progress of the poor and the downtrodden is possible only through education. Hence he undertook the great mission of imparting the radiance of knowledge to all, especially to the marginalised, to whom the college was established in 1964. The unseen but domineering presence of his social commitment, continues to enthuse the MSM fraternity for relentless pursuits to scale heights of excellence.

Notably, the MSM College is a symbol of empowerment and education located in the centre of Kayamkulam. It is a monument to his visionary leadership and commitment to helping the underprivileged and worthy minorities in society.

Managed by the MSM Trust, MSM College is more than just a college, it has served as a beacon of knowledge and hope for many generations. Not to be left behind, the institution grew from a modest beginning to become the region’s centre of academic achievement over time. The institution is proud of its highly effective faculty members who are committed to developing students’ potential and encouraging critical thinking. Over its history, MSM College has had a significant impact on establishing the cultural ethos of the community as well as the academic environment of Kayamkulam.

Noted alumni members included Mollywood’s Rasul Pookutty, Oscar award recipient, T P Srinivasan, former Ambassador of India, Permanent representative of India to UN,  Justice K Harilal, former Kerala High Court, Brigadier Suresh G, Indian Army, Dr P Sujatha Devi, chief scientist, CSTD, NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram, C S Sujatha, former MP.

For well over six decades, MSM College played a key role in catering socially backwards through enlightenment. In consonance with the vision of the founder, this shrine of letters looks forward to the heydays of a classless society. The programmes launched by the institution as part of this mission focus on academic excellence of global dimension, value-based personality development and training for leadership, and soft skill development. The college has produced many professionals for the industry and is one of the leading colleges in the region.

[The author is former Indian Express and Deccan Chronicle chief]

source: http://www.radiancenews.com / Radiance News / Home> Features> Focus / by M Rafi Ahmed / by Radiance News Bureau / August 28th, 2025

Seeds of Change: Muslim Women from Dharwad Who Won the UN’s Biodiversity Prize

Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Theertha Village (Dharwad District), KARNATAKA :

Seeds of Change Muslim Women from Dharwad Who Won the UN’s Biodiversity Prize / source: youtube.com/Radiance News

Awardee of the prestigious UNDP Equator Prize 2025 – often called the “Nobel Prize for Biodiversity.”

A Global Recognition for Rural Women: In a small corner of Karnataka, far from the corridors of power and the glare of television studios, a quiet revolution has been taking place. In Teertha village of Dharwad district, a group of Muslim women farmers have done what many thought impossible: they have revived traditional agriculture, empowered women, and built a sustainable rural economy – earning them global recognition.

Earlier this year, the Bibi Fathima Self-Help Group (SHG) was named one of the 10 winners of the UNDP Equator Prize 2025. Often described as the “Nobel Prize for Biodiversity,” the award recognises outstanding local initiatives that offer nature-based solutions to climate change and development challenges. Out of 700 nominations from 103 countries, these women stood out.

From Small Beginnings to a Wider Network

The journey began in 2019, when the SHG was formed under the guidance of the NGO Sambhvida. What started as a modest effort soon grew into a larger movement. Today, the Bibi Fathima SHG is part of a federation of 83 self-help groups, linking together nearly 300 women across Dharwad.

At the forefront is Bibi Fathima, a graduate in Arts, whose vision and determination have inspired women from different backgrounds to participate. Under her leadership, the SHG has become more than just an economic unit – it has become a space for learning, cooperation, and social change.

Millet: From Margins to the Mainstream

At the heart of their work lies a humble but powerful grain: millet. Once a staple of Karnataka’s fields and kitchens, millets were pushed to the margins by the Green Revolution’s focus on rice and wheat. The result was water scarcity, soil exhaustion, and loss of dietary diversity.

Their focus on millets also resonates globally. In fact, the United Nations declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets, recognising the grain’s role in ensuring food security and combating climate change. Governments, scientists, and nutritionists around the world are now looking at millets as the “crops of the future.” What the world is beginning to rediscover, the women of Dharwad have been practising for years – placing millets back at the heart of farming and household nutrition.

The women of Teertha decided to turn back to their roots. Through the SHG, they revived millet-based mixed cropping systems, promoting traditional practices that require less water, restore soil health, and provide nutritious food. They did not stop at farming – they built a movement around biodiversity.

The Seed Bank: A Living Library

One of their most significant achievements is the establishment of a community seed bank, where dozens of indigenous varieties of millets and pulses are preserved in earthen jars and carefully catalogued. The seed bank is more than a storage system – it is a lifeline. It ensures that farmers do not have to depend on costly hybrid seeds from outside markets.

The shelves lined with jars of foxtail, little millet, kodo, and pulses symbolise something larger: the preservation of biodiversity for future generations. As one member put it, “Every jar holds not just seeds, but the story of our ancestors and the hope of our children.”

Voices from the Ground

Speaking to Radiance News, Bibi Fathima explained how cooperation has been the backbone of their success.

“No single group can do this alone. We work together – sharing seeds, knowledge, and experiences. The seed bank has become our lifeline. It is not just a storehouse of grains, it is a storehouse of trust,” she told Radiance correspondent Mushtaq.

Her words capture the essence of the movement: solidarity across communities, generations, and villages.

From Seed to Market

The SHG’s innovation extends beyond cultivation. Recognising the need for value addition, they established a solar-powered millet processing unit, managed entirely by women. This unit transforms raw millet into flour, snacks, and packaged products that are finding markets in both rural and urban areas.

Partnerships have been crucial in this journey:

  • With Sahaja Samruddha, the SHG built marketing and certification channels.
  • With the Indian Institute of Millets Research, they accessed technical expertise.
  • With the Devadhanya Farmer Producer Company, they entered wider markets.

This blend of grassroots energy and institutional cooperation has turned a local SHG into a regional model for sustainable farming.

Breaking Stereotypes in a Polarised Society

In today’s climate, Muslims are often asked – sometimes with suspicion – what they contribute to the nation. Muslim women, in particular, are portrayed as silent or confined to the margins.

The Bibi Fathima SHG challenges these stereotypes powerfully. Here are Muslim women, in a rural corner of Karnataka, who are not just participating but leading. They are reviving biodiversity, protecting food security, and building rural enterprises. Their work proves that Muslim women are at the heart of India’s agricultural and social transformation.

Building Bridges: Hindu and Muslim Women Together

Perhaps the most inspiring part of this story is its inclusivity. The network of 83 SHGs is not confined to one community. Hindu and Muslim women farm together, share seeds, and manage enterprises as equal partners.

In an age when some try to inflame communal divisions for political purposes, these women are building bridges of unity through the soil itself. Their fields are places of cooperation, not conflict; of shared harvests, not suspicion. Biodiversity conservation here is not just ecological – it is social.

Faith and Social Service

Their commitment is also rooted in a broader moral principle of service. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

“The best among you are those who are best for society.”

Through farming, seed conservation, and entrepreneurship, the women of Teertha embody this ethos. Their contribution benefits not only Muslims but the entire community, from farmers and consumers to future generations.

A Long History of Muslim Contributions to Agriculture

This achievement is not an isolated story. For centuries, Muslims have enriched India’s agricultural landscape:

  • Irrigation systems built by engineers in medieval India turned barren land fertile.
  • New crops such as guava, pomegranate, and certain citrus varieties spread through trade routes maintained by Muslim communities.
  • Orchards and gardens in the Deccan and Mughal India reflected a philosophy of harmony between beauty and utility.
  • Women in rural households played critical roles in livestock, kitchen gardens, and seed saving – long before these terms became development jargon.

The women of Teertha stand in this tradition, carrying forward a legacy of stewardship and innovation.

Global Recognition, Local Pride

The Equator Prize 2025 is more than a trophy. It comes with a cash award of USD 10,000, but its symbolic value is greater. It tells the world that solutions to climate change and food insecurity are not found only in international conferences, but also in the daily work of rural women.

Later this year, representatives of the SHG will be virtually honoured at the UN Climate Conference (COP30) in Brazil. Their story will stand alongside other grassroots champions from Africa, Latin America, and Asia – proof that local action has global relevance.

Seeds of Hope for Plural India

The journey of the Bibi Fathima SHG is more than a story of millet farming. It is a story of agency, dignity, and unity. It shows that Muslim women are not passive observers but active leaders – biodiversity promoters, community builders, and entrepreneurs.

Their fields are not just producing crops – they are producing harmony, resilience, and hope. At a time when divisions are deepened for political gain, these women remind us that India’s real strength lies in cooperation across communities and in valuing every contribution, no matter how small.

The seeds planted in Teertha are not only for Karnataka’s soil. They are seeds for India’s future.

source: http://www.radiancenews.com / Radiance News / Home> Features> Focus / by Mohammed Talha Siddi Bapa / Radiance News Bureau / September 09th, 2025

Waheed Jahan Begum: A Reformer In Her Own Right l #IndianWomenInHistory

Amazing Feats, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Leaders, Women/Girls(since May26-2021),

Poonch, JAMMU & KASHMIR / DELHI / Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH :

In a time when women were relegated to the home and the hearth, and their dreams resigned to those of little other than a committed marriage and devout motherhood, Waheed Jahan Begum proved that women could want more for themselves.

  Featured Image Source: FII

Throughout India’s modern history in the struggle for women’s rights, many Indian reformers have gravitated towards upholding the crusade for women’s education as their foremost priority. For the everyday individual, the topic of women’s education tends to bring to mind a few notable Indian reformers who fought for women’s rights to pursue an education, albeit the large majority of these names are of men. 

Throughout India’s modern history in the struggle for women’s rights, many Indian reformers have gravitated towards upholding the crusade for women’s education as their foremost priority. For the everyday individual, the topic of women’s education tends to bring to mind a few notable Indian reformers who fought for women’s rights to pursue an education, albeit the large majority of these names are of men. 

Jyotirao Phule’s wife, Savitribai, was responsible for opening the first school for girls in the Indian subcontinent, yet her contributions and accomplishments are often accredited to their union than to her alone, and she is often overlooked for her importance to the movement while her husband is remembered by history as one of the leading reformers for it.

Similarly, in the union between Sheikh Abdullah and Waheed Jahan Begum, we see an identical dichotomy emerge as the husband rises to prominence for his contributions to women’s rights movements, while the wife is remembered only as his counterpart, or inspiration. 

Source: Book Women Education by Dr Nasreen Ahmad

Today we understand the importance of education in the lives of modern women, as a means to achieve financial independence in a patriarchal set-up that favours women as being financially dependent on their fathers, and later, their husbands. But despite the well-established variety of schools and colleges for women we have in India today, it was not always as such and the story of the path to women’s education would be incomplete without the role played by Waheed Jahan Begum. 

An early educator  

Waheed Jahan Begum was the youngest daughter born to Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim Beg, a minor municipal official, in a landholding family from Delhi in 1874. Though she did not have the means to pursue formal schooling, her father personally ensured she would be fluent in Urdu and Persian, while also hiring English tutors to provide her with an understanding of arithmetic and elementary English. 

She subtly began to implement her lifelong dream to start a school for girls in her surroundings growing up, by gathering up the houseworkers’ children and teaching them. Through this method, she succeeded at establishing one of the first concerted efforts at providing girls with an education in a group setting, akin to a school. She attempted to make education accessible to girls within her locality, regardless of their background, at a time when few others were able to say the same. 

In one simple gesture, she managed to lay down the foundations upon which she built her career from the ground up. 

Source: Aligarh Muslim University

But as a single Muslim woman in the Indian subcontinent, it would have been nearly impossible to single-handedly bring about concrete change. 

Sheikh Abdullah, however, was a Kashmiri lawyer who was a prominent leader in the Aligarh Movement, which encouraged the Muslim youth to pursue a modern English education. Though many in the movement rejected Muslim women’s right to an education as well, Sheikh Abdullah represented one of the few men in the movement who was outspoken regarding the need to educate girls and women. This made him a suitable candidate for Waheed Jahan Begum to partner with in her pursuit of fighting the cause for women’s education. They also later had five daughters and a son together. 

Creating a class of well educated muslim women

On marrying Sheikh Abdullah, Waheed Jahan Begum encouraged him in his quest to appeal to the issue of women’s education to the masses. Together, the couple concluded that female teachers needed to be trained to impart education to young girls. 

While Sheikh Abdullah took up the matter of women’s education in front of the Muslim Education Conference and was subsequently elected secretary of the Female Education Section, Waheed Jahan Begum became editor of an Urdu monthly, Khatoon, that the couple began publishing in 1904 to further the cause of women’s education. Additionally, they opened a primary school for the elite populace of Muslim girls. 

Waheed Jahan Begum also hosted meetings among educated Muslim women from across the country to champion the advantages and benefits of women’s education in the country, consequently securing funding for establishing a girls’ school. 

 Sheikh Abdullah with his daughters, son-in-law and grandchildren

However, Waheed Jahan Begum’s secular approach to women’s education growing up proved to be difficult to maintain going forward into her professional life as her lifelong goal to establish a school for girls proved to be a challenge amongst those in charge. 

As when the couple then moved on to start a primary school for girls on various disciplines relevant to the education of Muslim women, including Urdu, the Quran, arithmetic, and needlework, it was restricted to the daughters of elite families who could afford to educate their girls. Additionally, though the school opened with only seven students in 1906, it grew over the years to accommodate around a hundred students in 1909. 

This, however, did not come without its societal dangers, as the girls enrolled in the school faced harassment from the local boys and men in the process of travelling from their homes to the school in curtained carriages. This led to their families pulling them out of school once they reached puberty.

To counteract the threats posed to the girls in their travels, the couple then proceeded with, and succeeded at, pushing for the opening of a boarding school for girls. Leaving her children to be overseen by houseworkers’, Waheed Jahan Begum committed herself to establish the boarding school within the paradigm of a family structure, taking care of each of the girls enrolled in the boarding school as though they were her daughter.

From personally overseeing each aspect of the daily lives of her pupils regarding housekeeping, laundry, and shopping, she would even go as far as inviting the families of the girls to stay in the hostels for a few days to assure them of the safety of the boarding school and to secure their trust. 

In addition to such measures, strict purdah was enforced in the form of walls built around the facility to garner social acceptance from the Muslim elite, though both husband and wife agreed on the restrictive nature of purdah. Their battle for women’s education was riddled with compromises and concessions made which reveal the complexities of the arena of women’s education within the given historical context, as families would assign greater value to their daughters’ “honour” than their education as the former kept them marriageable. The latter held little weightage to their prospects in the market. 

A legacy to look upto

By the time Waheed Jahan Begum passed away in 1939, the boarding school had developed into a women’s college which offered several degree courses. 

Waheed Jahan Begum turned her dreams into reality, by handing down the gift of education to a new generation of Muslim women, with the women’s college she opened with her husband now boasting a strength of around 40,000 students and counting. Students travel from across the world to study at the college she opened back in the days when even moderately educated women were few and far between. 

Source: Aligarh Muslim University

To have achieved such a lasting change in the sphere of women’s education is no small feat, and while it is bleak to confront how little ability women have to bring forth a change within their material reality without the support of the progressive men in their lives, such as their husbands or fathers, it would altogether be impossible to bring to fruition without the hard work of inspiring women such as Waheed Jahan Begum.

She paved the way for the first steps to be taken in the emancipation of Muslim women in the Indian subcontinent, she believed in the power of education as a stepping stone to liberation from traditionalism which would have women confined to the knowledge of the four walls of their husband’s home and little of the vast world that lay beyond. 

As a woman who sacrificed so much of her freedom to dedicate her life to striving for the progress of future generations of Muslim women, she is deserving of recognition beyond her role as a supportive and ingenious partner to Sheikh Abdullah as he set the wheels in motion for women’s education within Muslim society at large.

In a time when women were relegated to the home and the hearth, and their dreams resigned to those of little other than a committed marriage and devout motherhood, Waheed Jahan Begum proved that women could want more for themselves, and for women at large, by leaving their mark on history in their words and actions, to inspire and leave room for future generations of women to add on to their legacy and change the world we live in, bit by bit. 

source: http://www.feminisminindia.com / Feminism in India – FII / Home / by Tanya Roy / January 13th, 2023

Tayeba Begum Khedive Jung: The First Muslim Woman Graduate | #IndianWomenInHistory

Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , , ,

Hyderabad, TELANGANA :

Unlike a lot of well-known female social reformers of her time, Begum Khedive Jung spent most of her life in the city of Hyderabad where she was born.

Tayeba Begum Khedive Jung (initially Tayeba Begum Bilgrami) was born to Abbasi Begum Bilgrami and Imad-ul-Mulk Syed Hussain in 1873. Unlike a lot of well-known female social reformers of her time, Begum Khedive Jung spent most of her life in the city of Hyderabad where she was born. While this did impact the overall reach of her writings and social work, she still managed to bring about a significant social impact in the various cities where she spent her life.

While growing up in Hyderabad, Begum Khedive Jung attended school with Sarojini Naidu who eventually went on to become a popular political activist. After her schooling, she completed her bachelor’s degree from the University of Madras in 1894 and became the first-ever Muslim woman graduate. However, she got married to Dr Mirza Karim Khan (Khedive Jung Bahadur) soon after and had to give up her education as a result of the same. 

Nonetheless, even after her marriage, Begum’s proficiency in English and Urdu languages and her continued efforts to perfect her Arabic and Persian ensured her intellectual growth. Her academic knowledge further enabled her to engage in numerous debates and discussions with men of great calibre during her time. This led her to form close bonds of friendship with Sir Ali Imam, the Prime Minister of Hyderabad state. 

Source: Geni

Jung’s role in advocating women’s education 

Begum Khedive Jung strongly advocated for the education of all women throughout her lifetime. She set up eight schools for girls in Hyderabad, but only two of them remain functional in today’s time. As a social activist, she chaired the annual women’s conference within the Brahmo Samaj. She also took charge of Anjuman-e-Khawatin-e-Islam which was started by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain to emancipate women by helping them acquire knowledge and skills.

In 1907, Begum Khedive Jung, along with women like Sarojini Naidu and Lady Amina Hydari, played a significant role in persuading the Nizam of Hyderabad to allow them to set up the Mahboobia Girls School in Hyderabad. 

Her years of social activism

Begum Khedive Jung and Lady Hydari carried out numerous social works together. In addition to their involvement in the establishment of Mahboobia Girls School, the two had also started the Lady Hydari Club. Even though the club was primarily known as a space for the elite women of Hyderabad, the less-known fact about it remained that it managed a school meant for the poor alongside running a library for them. 

Source: Geni

During the Great Musi Flood in 1908,  Begum Khedive Jung and Lady Hydari took up relief work to support those who had been affected. The two women, despite being pregnant during the floods, spent a significant amount of their time at the banks of the Musi river to support those in need. 

A long legacy left behind

Begum wrote and published folklore with Indian Magazine, London. During the year 1905, she finished writing a novel titled Anwari Begum which was initially published in 1909. However, the official publication of her writing took place after her death in 1922. The novel focused on the lives of women in the households of Hyderabad and was aimed at supporting the social reforms that Begum Khedive Jung wanted to bring about. It also tried to explore the intersections between the themes of elitism and seclusion within Hyderabad’s aristocracy. Additionally, Begum is also known to have worked on Indian folk songs during her lifetime. 

Source: Geni

Multiple women in Hyderabad derived strength from Begum’s work and carried her vision to educate Muslim women forward. One such female reformer was Sughra Humayun Mirza who established the Safdaria School in Hyderabad. 

Even a century after Begum Khedive Jung’s death, she continues to be remembered by the people of Hyderabad for the relief work she carried out during the Musi floods and the educational institutions she founded for young girls. 

source: http://www.feminisminindia.com / Feminism in India – FII / Home / by Upasana Dandona / January 18th, 2023

Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul: The Only Muslim Woman In India’s Constituent Assembly | #IndianWomenInHistory

Amazing Feats, Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri Award (since January 01st, 2024), Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Events, Exhibitions, Conferences (wef. Nov 18th, 2021), Freedom Fighters (under research project), Leaders, Royal Families, PreIndependence -Descendants (wef. Jan 02nd,2022), Sports, Women/Girls(since May26-2021), World Opinion, ,

Lucknow, UTTAR PRADESH :

Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul was one of the 28 Muslim League members to join the Constituent Assembly of undivided India, and she was the only Muslim woman to be a part of the assembly.

Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul was born to the royal family of Malerkotla (situated in erstwhile united Punjab) on 4th April,  1908. Her father was Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Khan. Qudsia had a progressive upbringing and was encouraged from a very early age to lead a modern life, as opposed to several stringent restrictions imposed upon other contemporary Muslim women, such as that of the purdah.

She got married at quite an early age to Nawaab Aizaz Rasul from the erstwhile province of Awadh. Her husband held the position of a taluqdar,  or a landowner. Qudsia had political exposure both before and after marriage, and her formal political participation took place after she got married.

Image Source: Wikivividly

Political Career

Qudsia, along with her husband, joined the Muslim League in mid-1930s, soon after the passing of the Government of India Act in 1935. This was also her official entry into electoral politics, as she contested in the elections of 1937 from the U.P. legislative assembly, where she successfully held her seat till 1952. Aizaz was one of the very few female candidates to have contested and won from a non-reserved constituency during the pre-independent times.

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She was the first Indian woman to achieve such feats, and this was truly commendable and noteworthy at a time when most formal political positions were almost implicitly reserved for men.

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As an MLA, she also held several important posts, such as the Leader of Opposition (1950 to 1952) and the Deputy President of the Council (1937 to 1940). She was the first Indian woman to achieve such feats, and this was truly commendable and noteworthy at a time when most formal political positions were almost implicitly reserved for men. Moreover, to rise to prominence at a politically significant province such as the U.P. indeed made Qudsia Aizaz Rasul a trailblazer.

Image Source: Indian Express

She is well known for her progressive, anti-feudal stances, such as the abolition of the zamindari system. Qudsia was a strong advocate for the abolition of communal electorates as well, as she believed it divided the society more than it united – which was counterproductive for the Indian electoral candidates at a time when there was an urgent need of a united Indian front to oppose the colonial rulers. She went on to create a strong and convincing case for the abolition of electoral reservations for religious minorities during her tenure as a member of the Constituent Assembly.

Qudsia was one of the 28 Muslim League members to join the Constituent Assembly of undivided India, and she was the only Muslim woman to be a part of the assembly. Her contributions in the assembly debates remain monumental till date and have been recorded in many official sources.

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Her contributions in the assembly debates remain monumental till date, and have been recorded in many official sources.

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After the dissolution of the League, she joined the Indian National Congress, and served as a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1952 to 1958. Later, she became a member of the legislative assembly of Uttar Pradesh from 1969 to 1989.

Other Achievements

Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul is also well known for her autobiography, titled From Purdah to Parliament: A Muslim Woman in Indian Politics. It provides excellent insights into the intersectional aspects of organised politics as it functions in our country. Other than this, she also wrote a travelogue titled Three Weeks in Japan.

Besides her literary prowess, Qudsia had also served as the President of the Indian Women Hockey Federation for over fifteen years, and went on to become the President of the Asian Women’s Hockey Federation.

Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2000 for immense, invaluable contributions to the field of social work.

References

1. From Purdah to Parliament: Begum Aizaz Rasul (A Review) by Radhika Bordia
2. Begum Aizaz Rasul: The only Muslim woman to oppose minority reservations in the Constituent Assembly by Christina George

source: http://www.feminisminindia.com / Feminism in India – FII / Home / by Ekata Lahiri / February 15th, 2019

Less known Muslim Women Freedom Fighters

Amazing Feats, Freedom Fighters (under research project), Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

INDIA :

Sultana Saleem was one of the officers of Azad Hind Fauj, or INA, of Subhas Chandra Bose.

It is a concise compilation of a few of less known Muslim women who took part in the Indian Freedom Struggle. 

Begum Mahboob Fatima: On 13 April 1932, two women were arrested at Chandni Chowk in Delhi by the police for commemorating the anniversary of the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh. These two were Begum Mahboob Fatima and Satyawati. On 21 April 1932, Begum Mahboob was sentenced for six months of Rigorous Imprisonment and Rupees 50 of fine. With this she became the first Muslim woman to have been sentenced during the freedom struggle in Delhi.

Sultana Saleem: Sultana Saleem was one of the officers of Azad Hind Fauj, or INA, of Subhas Chandra Bose. Her husband Colonel Saleem, whom she met during the war, also served the INA and Sultana was an officer of Rani Jhansi Regiment. Sultana reached India as part of the first contingent of captured soldiers of Rani of Jhansi Regiment in February 1946. The Indian Express reported on 22 February 1946, “Mrs Sleem felt that there was only one country for her- Hindusthan – and only one nation – Hindustani. She did not believe in either communalism or provincialism. It was the oneness of India that appealed to her most. In East Asia, she said there was no consciousness at all of religious or provincial differences and no untouchability problem. She believed that if India had freedom her many problems could be solved without much difficulty.”

Asghuri Begum: In 1857, when somewhere else Rani of Jhansi and Begum Hazrat Mahal were fighting against the colonial army of the English East India Company, in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, peasant women had organised themselves in armed bands. The leader was Asghuri Begum. The region had been liberated by the Indian revolutionaries where the women contingent was being led by Asghuri. When Major Sawyer conquered Thana Bhawan, a town in Shamli, in October 1857, Asghuri was also captured. British troops tied her to a pole at a public place and set fire to her alive. 

Nishat-un-Nisa: “I appeal to the youth of this country that they sit at the feet of this goddess (Nishat un Nisa Begum) to learn the lessons of independence and perseverance.” These were the words of famous Urdu poet Pandit Brij Narayan Chakbast. Nishat was the first Muslim woman to address a Congress Session and that too without a purdah. Hasrat Mohani, who coined Inquilab Zinadabad, was her husband. Nishat attended the public political meetings without her husband. She wrote articles, led delegations to Viceroy, participated in strikes and was the first woman to move a resolution for complete independence at a Congress session.

Saadat Bano: Saadat Bano whose husband Saifuddin Kitchlew is known as the hero of Jallianwala Bagh was a writer, poet and political activist much before her marriage. She wrote extensively for women rights, patriotism and education. It is a well known fact that people gathered at Jallianwala on 13 April 1919 to protest the arrest of Saifuddin but it is often overlooked that they came to listen to a public address by Saadat. Saifuddin was in jail but Saadat did not sit at home in those times. She used to address meetings, meet political leaders, attend Congress sessions, write in papers and take part in All India Women Conference activities. She was considered orator par excellence.

Amjadi Begum: How important a person would be if Gandhi himself wrote in one of his articles that this ‘brave woman’ led the ‘fundraising campaigns’ from the front ? Almost no history student in India knows Amjadi Begum. They know her as the wife of Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar. Gandhi in one of his articles wondered whether she could teach her husband the art of public oratory, where one impressed upon the hearts of the audience in a few words. She is believed to have single handedly led the fundraising campaigns and managed affairs of Jamia Millia Islamia when her husband was in prison.

Moondar:  Rani of Jhansi’s movement had an important Muslim woman, viz. Moondar. She was a close aide and assisted her during battles. Robert Hamilton, agent of Governor General to Central India, informed the British government on 30 October 1858, “Rani was riding a horse. There was another Muslim woman riding with her, who used to be her servant as well as companion since many years. Both fell down from the horse with the bullet wounds simultaneously.” Another British officer John Venables Sturt claimed that the body recovered by the British was not of Rani but Moondar’s. 

Nani Hakko: Nani Hakko was a jolaha (weaver) woman from Panipat who was impressed by Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of boycott and swadeshi. The she first heard him, Hakko started weaving her own shroud. She willed to be buried in a khadi shroud. When someone asked her what she was weaving, she would reply, ““I am weaving a kafan (shroud) for myself”. 

Hakko left this world only the day after completing this khaddar ka kafan. She asked people to bury her in this handwoven shroud (khaddar ka kafan) and boycotted the foreign made cloth even in her death. According to Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, she was the first person to have been buried in khaddar ka kafan as a result of Gandhi’s call to charkha. Khwaja wrote, “she was the first one to be buried in a khaddar ka kafan — a patriot unto death!”

source: http://www.heritagetimes.in / Heritage Times / Home / by Saquib Salim / March 08th, 2025