A girl who ran away from Women’s College, Aligarh

 

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 relatives which had led her to take admission, rather reluctantly. She started attending classes in the whole new environment of girls only college. Single gender interaction was even more particular in Women's college than any other all girls college could be. Hostels at Abdullah Hall were also much different from the home setup where we live with our male family members. In fact founders of the college, Sheikh Abdullah and Begum Waheed, had envisioned that the hostel would be a place where purdah would be stricter than in the traditional Muslim families. They argued that here girls would be away from the gaze of male cousins as well. The college has actually proved to be the place they wanted it to be.

As her room allotment was final, she was extremely homesick. One of her seniors and a batchmate helped her to get out of it. Still, she made three attempts to ‘run away’ from Aligarh and hence Abdullah Hall. The teenage girl, who never travelled alone in her life, took a train with an ordinary ticket to return to her home only to get a scolding from the parents and uncles. An uncle took her back the next morning. At that time she wanted to run away from Abdullah hall and take admission in some college like the one shown in movie “Kuch Kuch hota hai”. But, all her attempts failed since her Uncle knew what she did not know then. This girl is now fully aware that even a thousand words of gratitude are not enough for the Uncle. The girl was me, Dr. Mahino Fatima, a neuro-biologist with a PhD in life sciences.

Today, when I look back, women’s college is the most emotional asset I have. Women’s college, or Abdullah Hall as we call it at AMU, is not a residential college for me, it is a wholesome life experience which provides a complete platform to students to learn from all walks of life. Looking back to the most impactful time of my life, is the memories of Abdullah. At Abdullah Hall, I walked through a thrilling life process as we say “Safar Khoobsurat Hai Manzil se bhi”. Not only the journey to get educated, but my pursuit towards life’s other aspects is unaffected by the learnings at my alma mater. The Provost office, Library, Auditorium, Canteen and every place of Abdullah bears a memory where even trees would narrate stories. Stories of Abdullah can never be complete without the mention of your friends, who are your friends for life, to whom we shared books and ideas. Visit to Amir Nishan to Shamshad to Zakariya markets makes you explore the bermuda triangle with its mysterious food. Every year Numaish (exhibition) makes you believe in its narrative of being the largest of the nearabout towns. There are too many things to tell that any Aligarian can bet that nostalgia related to Abdullah is unmatched. Today, I, who ran away from the college, strongly recommend to my family and friends to take admission at the women’s college, where we not only learn subjects and earn our degrees but we are acquainted with our culture.

When I look back that how Fatima Sheikh, one of the first muslim women teachers of modern India along with Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule, who took up the mission to educate girls, struggled to convince people then for the cause. I can relate how a subjugated gender even today needs a secured platform to come out of its shell first. Here comes the importance of Women’s college, which gives a sense of security among parents, among society. Even today, the opportunities which are at ease to me are not the privileges for major sections of the society. Now, I strongly feel the need for riveted educational spaces which can fortify young girls into strong women. Creation of the Women’s college with the efforts of Sheikh Abdullah and Begum Waheed after a long struggle between progressive and orthodox Muslims, provided India a most prestigious and morally befitted college to Muslim families. The teachings and learnings from the women’s college complement education with culture. The self-sustaining and large area dedicated for the Abdullah Hall or the women’s college houses what a girl can imagine. The girls who chose Burqa as their religious right, found themselves capable of participating in all other curricular activities which includes sports and NCC. While many among us have the choice to go anywhere in the world to secure education, few girls have to struggle to come out of their regressive cultural scaffolds. Here comes the importance of Women’s college where girls from the most backward class can share their platform with the most elite class which instil confidence in them.

On 1 March, 1914, Begum of Bhopal, Sultan Jahan, while inaugurating the women’s college, said that the change would not come instantly. First, we had to prepare people with the fact that girls can be educated, she argued, then we could move on to the next target of teaching them English, afterwards we would advocate similar education for men and women. She believed that society would slowly accept the change. The women’s college represents that slow change where conservative Muslim families agree to send their daughters because they believe that the college has a good purdah culture. Don’t we know that this conservative college gave us Ismat Chughtai, Renuka Devi and Rashid Jahan? I am a witness to the change the girls had brought to their families after studying at the women’s college. From being a girl who thought it to be a regressive institute as a teenager, I have grown up to be a woman scientist who has this faith that India needs many more Abdullah Halls before we achieve a complete social revolution.