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Muslim families of Malerkotla have shed their conservative attitude. Today women of the community get the best of education, reports Shariq Majeed TWENTY-seven years ago, when Saira, a Muslim divorcee, started a beauty parlour in the once conservative town of Malerkotla, no one would have thought that she was making a wise choice. In a society where women are not given much freedom to work, the idea of their trying to become economically independent was not welcome. But braving all threats from fundamentalists, Saira not only survived the divorce, but also led a life of dignity.
She has managed to provide good education to her daughters and son. "When my husband divorced me, I could have hardly thought of survival. Fundamentalists threatened to ruin my business because they thought it would lead Muslim women astray", says Saira, whose two daughters Saima and Aman did masters in English and business administration. "There was a time when Muslim parents would not send their daughters for studies because of a conservative attitude. When I sent my daughters to school, people would taunt me for breaking rules of Islam. Despite facing the humiliation, I continued to educate my daughters. I myself never studied beyond class XII, "she says. "But things have changed in our town. These days Muslim women come for beauty treatment, and a large number of them also come to get training," says Saira with a gentle smile on her face. Several beauty parlours in Malerkotla town have sprung up. A majority of these are being run by Muslim women. Shamima, a widow, whose husband was an aeronautical engineer, vowed to educate her daughter. Even as she confined herself to the four walls of her home in Malerkotla, she continued to send her lone daughter Shima to a CBSE-affiliated co-educational school. "When Shima joined college, not many Muslim girls used to study there. The very people who thought it useless to educate girls beyond a certain limit have now changed their outlook and are striving hard to get their daughters well educated. My daughter has not let me down. Today she is teaching in the college where she once studied. I wish more and more girls from Malerkotla should make it big in life after getting proper education", says Shamima. Islamia Senior Secondary school (Girls), Malerkotla, which is being run by the Punjab Waqf Board, has now a modern outlook. The institution, which started functioning as a primary school and had less than 100 girls in the late seventies, has more than 1300 girls studying up to class XII. A majority of them are Muslims. "Muslim families today want educated daughters-in-law. This has motivated members of the community to give their girls quality education," says Seema Rani, principal of the school. Abida Chauhan, president, Muslim women’s wing, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Punjab, says: "There is a change for the better among the women of Malerkotla." Dr Mohammed Rafi,
professor of social sciences at Malerkotla Degree College, says there
has been a drastic social change in this tiny town.
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