[Reader-list] Monthaly Posting ,Girls Madarsas,

[sallykenin at yahoo.com]

 Friends here is another experience of Madarsa life.  
                                            

Often because of economic compulsions parents have to
choose  between educating the boys and educating the
girls, and boys invariably get preference. This is one
of the reasons for the educational backwardness of
muslim women.  Also, the low female literacy rate in
muslim community can be attributed  to the extreme
form of purdah  system prevalent in some sections  of
the community.

 Many of these sections still nurture centuries old
belief that women should not leave the confines of the
house to seek education. As a result many parents do
not educate their daughters beyond the certain grade. 
  
    According to some parents atmosphere and openness
in college is not appropriate  for their daughters
from islamic point of view. So they are not in favour
of co-education . 
 These problems are still considered as a great hassle
in imparting education to girls but now these problems
 to some extent have been sorted out  because of
madersa education system.
 The kind of atmosphere  and arrangement  of purdah
has been made in these madersa are satisfactory  for
parents. Now more attention is being paid to impart
education to the girls and gradually more madarsas are
being founded exclusively for their girls.

    At present many madarsa in Andhera pardesh ,
Delhi, Gujrat,       Karnataka,Kerala,Maharashtra,
Tamilnadu and   U.P  offer facilities  for girls
education  in Islamic and secular subjects. Among 
these states, highest number  of girls madarsas are in
Kerala , Maharashtra and U.P. 

Broadly speaking , two stream of courses are offered
by these madarsas. One stream of courses is spread
over a period of fourteen years and provides for
elementary to higher level of education. The other
stream  includes  short term  compact courses of two
years and three years  duration in Islamic science for
those girls who have already completed their modern
secondary  or higher education and are interested in
acquiring religious education. 
   In all the courses designed for girls , their
special needs and their  future role in the muslim
society have been kept in view . In long term courses,
emphasis  has been laid on inclusion of more relevant
portions of Islamic learning besides adding important
modern subjects and matters relating to  housekeeping,
nursing, maternity, general medicine etc in the
curriculum. 
For example, the subjects and activities included in
the first eight years  curriculum of Jamiatus salehat,
a renowned  residential madarsa  for girls at Rampur 
U.P are Quran ,Hadeth,[Teachings of prophet] History
of Islam, Fiqh, Arabic , Urdu, English, Hindi
language, general knowledge, History,Geography,
Science, Home science, Mathematics ,Arts, Tailoring,
Sports and computer education etc. 

   After completing this course the girls may either
join the next higher course in  Madarsa  leading to
the degree of AAlmiat  and senior secondary school
certificate or may go to  a modern secondary school
for further education in modern subjects .

In  many girls madarsa  all modern subjects along with
their  Islamic education are taught from  primary to
senior secondary level.

 In comparison  to boys madarsa, girls madarsa are
more modernised  and sophisticated  in terms of
syllabus  and extra curricular activities perhaps its
because they are newly formed . 
While commenting on the increasing popularity of
Islamic education amongst girls 
it has been observed that  there  has been so much of
rush  in girls education sections that it is becoming
difficult to make arrangements commensurate with the
demand. 

According to Prof. M. Akhter Siddiqui ‘’community’s
consciousness about girls education  particularly
their religious education is  constantly increasing,,.

   
 There are very few madarsa in Delhi for girls. Only
one of them is  residential and that is Jamia Islamia
Lilbanat situated in Shaheen bag  jamia nager.
  
 The other thing about girls madarsa  is that every
student has to  pay mess charge as it is compulsory.
There is no concession to any one so here again  those
who can not afford 500 to 600  rupees every month for
food, are deprived  from education .

 For these poor  parent’s daughters  very few  yateem
khana  {orphan’s home }  are running across the
country  but here only those girls are given
preference  who have lost   their father or mother
while in most of the madersas  boys are provided each
and every thing free. 
 We went to visit some of  girls madarsa but we are
not allowed to talk  any student  there is tight
vigilance on outsiders without prior permission  no
body can enter in to the premises and even after
taking permeation only parents or  siblings are
allowed in side. 

Girls are not allowed to go outside  for walk or any
thing during their stay in madarsa . 

  We also came to know that parent or sibling  are not
 permitted to talk  their daughters over phone and if
they write any letter to their daughters  it first
goes to principle or teacher who first reads  it  then
 it is handed over  to the student. Now one can
imagine the vigilance of these girls student and their
freedom within the Madarsa campus [a moment to think
of those who have got all kind of  freedom of
communication in this modern period]  
 Apart from all these drawbacks these madarsas are
contributing to women’s
 education in Muslim society.    



	
		
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