City madrasa keeps purdah to ‘part’ it, and educate girls

By Preeti Jha

Posted online: Sunday, August 03, 2008

New Delhi: Thirty girl students pour into a classroom, opening up textbooks in preparation for their lesson. It’s not the sight of their teacher they are waiting for, but the sound of his voice — streaming through inbuilt speakers, the lesson is delivered from the other side of the school.

Sitting cross-legged in a small cubicle downstairs, schoolteacher Mufti Farooque speaks into a microphone the words from Hadith, reports about the Prophet. The girls are studying in one of Delhi’s few female madrasas: Jamiat-Ul-Banat Al Islamia (JBI) in Okhla, where purdah (here simply defined as physical segregation of males and females) is strictly upheld.

“The teacher has to work hard to give the impression that he is in the classroom, that he is watching students, to keep them engrossed,” says office assistant Misbah.

Farooque, indeed, frequently interjects his passages with questions: “What did I say?” he asks one student. “Now repeat that,” he instructs another.

While there are no conclusive figures detailing the total number of madrasas, scholars and teachers identify only three residential institutes catering to females in the Capital. Of these, JBI began from a small room in Nizamuddin village 12 years ago.

“There were only 10 girls back then,” says general secretary Mohammad Talha. But it wasn’t long before enrolment shot up and the school expanded. It’s now attended by 650 girls across both campuses. And like many other urban madrasas, JBI is modernising its curriculum to meet the demands of competitive higher education and the job market.

Besides Islamic studies, it teaches Arabic, English, Urdu, Maths and Home Science, spread across a five-year programme. Institutions such as Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia accept its language students once they pass an accreditation test from a recognised madrasa, as JBI is yet to gain recognition.

Aspirations among students are varied, says principal Amna Mohammad Haroun: “Around 20 per cent of our graduates continue with higher education.”

Isolation versus opportunity Mohsena, 22, who studied at Noor Nagar Government Girls School in Okhla till Class X, is one such madrasa graduate, preparing to undertake a Bachelors degree in Education at Jamia. Zakiya, 18, already a Class XII graduate from a mainstream school, is however enrolled in JBI purely for religious knowledge. “I love what I’m learning here,” she says. “I don’t want to enter the world outside — I’ll teach at a madrasa in future.”

Academics researching JBI and other such madrasas acknowledge that they open up opportunities for Muslim girls whose parents are discouraged by existing educational institutes, but at the same time stress the importance of improving the quality of education and widening access to opportunities.

Based on his 2006 study of madrasas, which included JBI, Prof S M Sajid of Jamia’s Department of Social Work says: “My conclusions pointed to the importance of building the capacity of teachers in madrasas — they are not all sufficiently trained. This would significantly improve the quality of education and provide a benchmark for teaching standards.”

Dr Sushma Jaireth, a reader in Department of Women’s Studies at NCERT, is researching madrasas from a gender perspective. She says: “Madrasas certainly improve literacy and provide learning opportunities for Muslim girls. But while the girls are empowered about their religion, they are very isolated from the rest of the world. For wider empowerment in their communities it would be a good idea to open up other subjects and career opportunities.”

As for the purdah system, Iffat, 20, says it is important and enabling for girls at the madrasa. “I can go outside — to study at university, and later to teach, but through purdah,” she says. “Studying here opens up options I wouldn’t otherwise have.”

According to findings of the Sachar Committee, set up to study the social, economic and educational status of the community, just under 4 per cent of Muslim boys and girls go to madrasas across India.

Source: Expressindia.com

URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-culture/city-madrasa-keeps-purdah-‘part’/d/443