Awaz-e-Khwateen

Rutba Iqbal / Awaz e Khwateen February 2 is celebrated as The foundation day of AMU's Women's College, whose earliest alumni are pioneers like Rashid Jahan and Ismat Chutagai. The foundation day of AMU's Women's College is the marriage anniversary of Sheikh Abdullah and Waheed Jahan. The marriage of these two was instrumental in the impetus of Mulsim women's education in India. Sheikh Abdullah was a reverted Muslim who hailed from Poonch. A lawyer by profession, he was influenced by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, founder of the Aligarh Movement. On February 2, 1902, Sheikh Abdullah got married to Begum Waheed Jahan, daughter of Mirza Ibrahim Beg, in Delhi. Begum Wahid belonged to one of the few Muslim families of the time where daughters were allowed to get educated. Begum Wahid's father became her tutor when he couldn't find a female teacher (ustani) to educate his daughters. Holding the issue of women's education close to her heart Begum Wahid talked to her

  Dr. Mahino Fatima / Awaz e Khwateen On a thunderous rainy day of July, 2003, a shy, timid and clueless girl from a small town of Faizabad was trying hard to complete the ‘long admission procedure’ to B.Sc (Hons) at the Women’s College at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The first adult from a conservative family to have got an opportunity to study at a residential institution, she was reluctant of the traditional AMU culture, after studying at a co-education school, where genders were not allowed to mix freely. Since her name was in the chance memo, she waited a few days to get her name in the cleared list. The aspirants were praying to have their names in the list. Aligarh was a dream for the parents, and ignited the girl's charm towards (now) her alma mater. After taking admission, in August, she came back from her hometown to attend B.Sc classes. Attracted by others' dreams to be a student at AMU she was not much sure of what she had secured. It was the reaction of her