Fatima Sheikh

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Fatima Sheikh
Savitribai Phule with Fatima Sheikh.jpg
Photograph of Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh, with unidentified woman in back and two students from their school seated, c. 1850 [1]
Occupation(s)Social reformer, teacher
Known forIndia's first Muslim woman teacher
RelativesMian Usman Sheikh (Brother)

Fatima Sheikh was a 19th century Indian educator and social reformer, who was a colleague of the social reformers Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule. [2] [3] Sheikh is widely regarded as India's first Muslim woman teacher and is remembered for her role in educating and empowering women and marginalized communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [1] [4]

Contents

Biography

Fatima Sheikh was the sister of Mian Usman Sheikh, a resident of Pune in the neighbourhood of Ganjpeth, who was also a friend of Jyotiba Phule. [5] According to Nasreen Sayyed, author of a book on Fatima Sheikh, Sheikh was already literate and Usman encouraged her to receive teacher training, adding that "She went along with Savitribai [Phule] to the Normal School and they both graduated together. She was the first Muslim woman teacher of India." [4]

Sheikh and Savitribai subsequently received teacher training from Cynthia Farrar, an American missionary in Ahmednagar. [6] They established their first girls' school in a portion of Usman Sheikh's house in 1848, under the name "Indigenous Library". [7] [8] [9] It was a revolutionary project since in the social milieu of those times, girls were not allowed to receive public education. [8] The two teachers had to go house to house to promote their school and to persuade parents to send their children there. [5]

The Phules faced resistance from Jyotiba's parents for their social work, and had to leave the ancestral home. They went to live with Usman Sheikh, and stayed there till 1856. [5]

Fatima Sheikh taught alongside Savitribai Phule at two schools established by the Phules in July 1851, with financial support from Thomas Erskine Perry. These "Native Female Schools" educated girls from diverse caste backgrounds, teaching the more advanced students a broad curriculum including history, geography, arithmetic, and socio-economic issues. According to Jana Tschurenev, "Savitribai and Fatima Sheikh were the first Indian women teachers outside the domain of missionary supervision." Their work helped pave the way for other women to enter teaching in India and the success of the schools contributed to future government support of female education in India. [10]

Recognition

In 2014, the state of Maharashtra included a brief profile of Fatima Sheikh in Urdu language textbooks. [7] [9]

Many people regard 9 January as the date of her birth, using it for remembrance. [5] [11] [12] On 9 January 2022, Google commemorated Sheikh with a Google Doodle marking what it referred to as her 191st birth anniversary, describing her as being "widely considered to be India's first Muslim woman teacher". [13] However, Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, author of a 2023 biography of Savitribai Phule, later commented for a 2025 ThePrint article that "there is no evidence to suggest that she was born on the 9th of January". [1]

In 2022, the Andhra Pradesh government introduced Sheikh into its textbooks. [14] Reading circles were set up in her name and a library at Shaheen Bagh protest site was named after her and Savitribai. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Menon, Vandana (10 January 2025). "Finding Fatima Sheikh: Scholars point to Phule's letter, photo negative & British-era document". ThePrint . Archived from the original on 14 January 2025. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  2. ↑ Tharu, Susie J.; Lalita, K. (1991). Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the early twentieth century. Feminist Press at CUNY. p. 162. ISBN   978-1-55861-027-9.
  3. ↑ Prasad, Madhu (2019). "A strategy for exclusion". In Raina, Jyoti (ed.). Elementary Education in India: Policy Shifts, Issues and Challenges. Taylor & Francis. p. 166. ISBN   978-1000586954.
  4. 1 2 Kandukuri, Divya (11 January 2019). "The life and times of Savitribai Phule". Mint Lounge . Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 4 O'Hanlon, Rosalind (16 January 2022). "What a photograph tells us about Fatima Sheikh" . The Indian Express . Archived from the original on 16 February 2022.
  6. ↑ Grey, Mary (2016). "Opposition to Untouchability: Gandhi and Ambedkar". A Cry for Dignity: Religion, Violence and the Struggle of Dalit Women in India. Taylor & Francis. pp. 117–118. ISBN   978-1315478401.
  7. 1 2 Khan, Aqsa Khan (22 January 2017). "Remembering Fatima Sheikh: A Woman Lost In History - #IndianWomenInHistory". Feminism in India. Archived from the original on 7 December 2024.
  8. 1 2 Apurva, Ankita (26 January 2021). "Why Do Caste Gatekeepers Not Tell Us About Fatima Sheikh?". LiveWire, The Wire. Archived from the original on 25 February 2024.
  9. 1 2 Sengupta, Arjun (10 January 2023). "Who was Fatima Sheikh: India's oft-forgotten feminist icon" . The Indian Express . Archived from the original on 7 December 2024. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  10. ↑ Tschurenev, Jana (2019). "Civil Society, Government, and Educational Institution-Building, Bombay Presidency, 1819–1882". Empire, Civil Society, and the Beginnings of Colonial Education in India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 276–279. ISBN   978-1108656269 . Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  11. ↑ Menon, Vandana (9 January 2018). "Fatima Sheikh: The woman who reshaped Indian education with Savitribai Phule". ThePrint. Archived from the original on 8 December 2024.
  12. ↑ Nasiruddin (10 January 2025) [13 September 2020]. "faatima shekh, saavitree baee phule kee saathee theen ya nahin, upalabdh dastaavez kya bataate hain?" फ़ातिमा शेख़, सावित्री बाई फुले की साथी थीं या नहीं, उपलब्ध दस्तावेज़ क्या बताते हैं? [Was Fatima Sheikh a companion of Savitribai Phule or not, what do the available documents tell us?]. BBC News (in Hindi). Archived from the original on 14 January 2025.
  13. ↑ "Fatima Sheikh's 191st Birthday". Google Doodles . Archived from the original on 28 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  14. ↑ Patnaik, Santosh (4 November 2022). "AP introduces lesson in schools on Fatima Sheikh, India's first woman Muslim teacher". The Siasat Daily . Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
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