reflections on the deobandi reformist agenda in a female quomi madrasah in bangladesh
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Reflections on the Deobandi ReformistAgenda in a Female Quomi Madrasah inBangladeshMomotaj Begum a & Humayun Kabir aa Hiroshima UniversityPublished online: 04 May 2012.
To cite this article: Momotaj Begum & Humayun Kabir (2012) Reflections on the DeobandiReformist Agenda in a Female Quomi Madrasah in Bangladesh, South Asia: Journal of South AsianStudies, 35:2, 353-380, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2012.659650
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Reflections on the Deobandi Reformist Agenda in
a Female Quomi Madrasah in Bangladesh
Momotaj Begum and Humayun Kabir
Hiroshima University
AbstractDuring the British Raj, as part of an effort to reform the Muslim communitythrough religious regeneration and in the absence of Muslim political power onthe subcontinent, Islamic scholars (ulema) from the Darul Uloom Deobandseminary urged the setting up of separate institutions of religious education forMuslim women. The reformist discourse of the Deobandi ulema had, and stillhas, a profound influence on the pedagogy of madrasah education for womenin South Asia, including Bangladesh. This study examines how Deobandireformist ideals continue to be reflected in a non-government female madrasahin Bangladesh. The study provides an ethnographic account which illustratesthe development of a sense of Muslim womanhood, rooted in ideas of moralguidance and the pious lifestyles of the female students of the madrasah.Madrasah education increases Muslim women’s participation in religiousinstitutions and forums, thereby heightening the possibility of a broader impacton religious life. Although madrasah education empowers female students toimprove their religious consciousness, it has less impact on patriarchalideology, which is deeply embedded in Bangladeshi society and culture.
Keywords: Madrasah, ulema, Deoband, Muslim womanhood, patriarchy
IntroductionIn the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the education of Muslimwomen became a central issue for social reformers on the Indian subcontinent.In the context of colonial encroachment and in the absence of Muslim politicalpower, Islamic scholars (ulema, sing. alim) trained in Islamic religious schoolsor seminaries (madrasahs) were concerned about religious regeneration, andmany considered women’s (religious) education necessary for the protection ofMuslim culture and tradition. Educated Muslim women were seen as important
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies,n.s., Vol.XXXV, no.2, June 2012
ISSN 0085-6401 print; 1479-0270 online/12/020353-28 � 2012 South Asian Studies Association of Australia
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actors and social agents in the project of reforming the Muslim family andcommunity as a whole. The reformist Islamic scholars at the Darul UloomDeoband in northern India were pioneering thinkers who advocated thenecessity of religious education for Muslim women, viewing them as ‘protectorsof Islam’. Darul Uloom Deoband, the largest Islamic seminary, was founded in1866 in the small town of Deoband, becoming an important part of the Islamicrevivalist-reformist educational movement throughout South Asia.1 ManyDeobandi scholars produced guidelines for the ideal Muslim woman and thereformist discourse had a significant impact on the pedagogy of madrasaheducation in South Asia, including in Bangladesh. This paper examines how theDeobandi reformist agenda, which emphasised the formation of an idealMuslim womanhood based on the orthodox creeds and teachings of Islam,continues to be reflected in a local non-government-run female madrasah inBangladesh today.
In recent years, madrasahs have received considerable academic attention.Many studies describe the operational, functional and historical roles of theseinstitutions along different social and political trajectories.2 However, studies ofthe growing phenomenon of female madrasahs have not received as muchattention. Only recently have some scholars begun to explain the role ofmadrasahs in Bangladeshi society.3 On the basis of an ethnographic account ofa non-government-run female madrasah, the Al-Jameyatul al-Arabia (AJAM),located near Chittagong, this study illustrates the process by which the corereformist agenda of Deoband has been replicated through institutionalisedIslamic religious schooling. We also look at Al-Madania al-Arabia Madrasa(AMAM), a female Quomi madrasah in Mirpur Thana of Dhaka. We arguethat the female Quomi madrasah aims to develop a sense of ideal Muslimwomanhood—the individual Muslim woman’s self—as imagined on the basisof moral guidance and Islamic prescriptions, whereby women would be thepromoters of an Islamic ethos in the domestic sphere as well as within the scope
1 On the Deoband seminary, see Barbara Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband 1860–1900 (New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1982); Ziyaul Hasan Faruqi, The Deoband School and the Demand for
Pakistan (New Delhi: Asia Publishing House, 1963); and Dietrich Reetz, ‘The Deoband Universe: What
Makes a Transcultural and Transnational Educational Movement of Islam’, in Comparative Studies of South
Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol.XXVII, no.1, (2007), pp.139–59.2 See one of the recent studies on madrasahs, Keiko Sakurai and Fariba Adelkhah (eds), The Moral Economy
of the Madrasa: Islam and Education Today (London: Routledge, 2011).3 For example, see Ali Riaz, Faithful Education: Madrassahs in South Asia (New Jersey: Rutgers University
Press, 2008), Chap. 4; Humayun Kabir, ‘Diversity of Islamic Education in Bangladesh: Colonial Legacy and
State Policy towards Madrasas’, in The Journal of Social Studies, no.120 (Oct.–Dec. 2008), pp.1–24; also, his
‘Replicating the Deobandi Model of Islamic Schooling: The Case of a Quomi Madrasa in a District Town of
Bangladesh’, in Contemporary South Asia, Vol.XVII, no.4 (Dec. 2009), pp.415–28.
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of their limited mobility in the public sphere. In addition to disciplining femalestudents through religious piety, such education transforms Muslim women’sroles from those of passive recipients to conveyors and preachers of religiousknowledge. However, the increasing participation of Muslim women inreligious spheres has had only a limited effect on breaking down the genderedconstruction of Muslim womanhood in Bangladesh.
There are two types of madrasahs in Bangladesh: state-aided, government-reformed madrasahs and non-state-aided, unreformed madrasahs.4 The firsttype includes Aliya madrasahs, which function in parallel with the secular,modern, Western-style mainstream education system. The second type ofmadrasahs are known as Quomi (from qaum, meaning nation) madrasahs.These Islamic seminaries in Bangladesh are historically associated with thebroader Islamic revivalist-reformist tradition in South Asia owing tothe exclusive nature of their religious training. They function independentlyof the state’s education system and their custodians are ulema trained either inlocal Deobandi-type Quomi madrasahs or the Deoband seminary in India.5 Inthis study, we consider a Quomi madrasah founded by a local DeobandiMuslim scholar. We try to illustrate how the Deobandi reformist appeal ismanifested in the pedagogy and disciplinary practices of AJAM’s femalemadrasah. We contend that the ulema of Quomi madrasahs—the Deobandiulema—similarly to their predecessors and mentors, call for the right toeducation for Muslim women while simultaneously defining an ideal Muslimwomanhood by promoting Islamic religious teachings and lessons.
Deobandi Reformists’ Appeal and Muslim Women’s EducationWomen’s education on the subcontinent became a target for social reformduring the nineteenth century. The debate was not over women’s education perse; rather, it was over what kind of education they should receive and to whatextent they should be educated.6 In British India, education was recognised asan area in need of reform by certain leaders of both the Hindu and Muslimcommunities against a backdrop of colonial modernisation and the rise ofWestern-style education systems. In the pre-1857 period, many Muslimreformists viewed the benefits of women’s education as two-fold: first, womenwould become better companions to their husbands, better mothers and better
4 Kabir, ‘Diversity of Islamic Education in Bangladesh’, pp,1–24.5 Kabir, ‘Replicating the Deobandi Model of Islamic Schooling’, pp.415–28.6 Gail Minault, Secluded Scholars: Women’s Education and Muslim Social Reform in Colonial India (New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998), p.81.
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homemakers; and second, women would become better Muslims and bettermoral and ethical guides for their children, and they would be more aware oftheir rights and duties within scriptural Islam.7 The Deobandi ulema were alsoin favour of this mission of education reform for women. Paradoxically,however, Modernist Muslim leaders did not necessarily support the educationof Muslim women outside the home because they feared violating the sacredcustom of purdah (veiling). For instance Syed Ahmed Khan, a graduate ofAligarh College, believed that the formal education of women was prematureand he favoured home education instead.8 At that time, Muslim women’seducation was limited to the ashraf (higher/noble Muslim) class. The daughtersand wives of higher-class Muslims were educated at home and their educationcorresponded with their families’ rise in status. Zoya Hasan and Ritu Menonnote that
it was those Muslims who championed a reformist religiousideology who also made the first move towards women’seducation . . . it was the Deobandis, rather than Syed AhmedKhan, who addressed the subject of women’s education and itspositive benefits.9
The Deobandi movement gave preference to reforms that benefited individuals.It suggested that if individual lives were ordered properly, the life of thecommunity would change. The issue of Muslim women’s education wasaddressed publicly within the context of this individual-focused reform agenda.In the absence of a Muslim political authority, the Deobandi ulema emerged asthe ‘protectors of Islam’, many of whom recognised individual reform for bothmen and women as a means of strengthening Islamic culture and tradition. Inthis reform project, Muslim women’s responsibility was deemed to be no lessimportant than that of Muslim men. A woman was seen as ‘the mistress ofprivate Islamic space’, the preserver of Islamic culture and identity and theguardian of virtue, especially in domestic spaces.10 According to the Deobandireformist agenda, Muslim women would become active reformers of theMuslim family and, consequently, affect the entire community. The ulemabelieved that a short-duration, home-based education system was insufficientfor properly educating Muslim women to perform such great duties. Rather,
7 Ibid., p.55.8 Ibid., p.18.9 Zoya Hasan and Ritu Menon, Educating Muslim Girls: A Comparison of Five Indian Cities (New Delhi: Raj
Press, 2005), p.5.10 Francis Robinson, Islam and Muslim History in South Asia (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000),
pp.111–2.
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they favoured a separate institutional form of education for women. Forinstance, Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi (1864–1943), a noted Deobandi scholar,called for the equal right of women to education. His book, Bihishti Zewar(Heavenly Ornaments), used the Quran and the prophetic tradition (Hadith) toaffirm the necessity of education for Muslim women:
For many years, I watched the ruination of the religion of thewomen of Hindustan and was heartsick because of it. I struggled tofind a cure, worried because that ruin was not limited to religionbut had spread to everyday matters as well . . . the cause of thisruination is nothing other than women’s ignorance of religiousscience. This lack corrupts their beliefs, their deeds, their dealingwith other people, their character and the whole manner of theirsocial life . . . . [I] realized that in order to manage women it isabsolutely necessary to teach them the science of religion . . .11
In the early twentieth century, Thanawi’s call for separate educationalinstitutions for women led to a dramatic shift in women’s education. Whilehis predecessors worried that such education would lead to social disruption orthe abolition of the purdah system, Thanawi asserted that education was notresponsible for social disruption; rather, the educational system, the curriculumand management difficulties caused social disorder.12 Although his voluminousbook stated that women are potentially equal to men in all matters, he neverquestioned their different social roles.13 His reformist ideals were based on theassumption that women were socially subordinate to men. Bihishti Zewar wasdisseminated widely in South Asia, not only serving as a useful manual forreligious learning, but also instructing women on how to be pious. OtherMuslim reformers during Thanawi’s time, such as Nazir Ahmed, SayyidMumtaz Ali, Sayid Ahmed Dehlawi and Bashiuddin Ahmed, were alsoconcerned with women’s education and suggested guidelines for women’shousehold work. However, Thanawi’s Bihishti Zewar offered the mostcomprehensive guide to help Muslim women lead their lives according toIslamic prescriptions.14 Barbara Metcalf and Gail Minault both argue thatThanawi’s Bihishti Zewar did not attempt to resist or call attention to genderdifferences; rather, he advocated a particular type of education for Muslim
11 Barbara Daly Metcalf, Perfecting Women: Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi’s Bihishti Zewar (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1990), pp.47–8; also cited in Minault, Secluded Scholars, pp.62–3.12 Maulana Mufti Ataur Rahman Kasemi, Uthkristo Nari Jibon O Pordatatto (Dhaka: Al-Athar Academy,
1998), p.56.13 Metcalf, Perfecting Women, p.9.14 Minault, Secluded Scholars, p.101.
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women that emphasised Islamic observances, defined the social role of an idealMuslim woman, and proposed that further religious and moral knowledgewould help women better guard the morality of the home. The reformerssought to construct an image of a Muslim woman aligned with the role modelsof women from early periods of Islam, such as the Prophet’s wives, daughtersand female companions, who were competent in religious knowledge and activein promoting a religious ethos and principles in accordance with the code andconduct of Islam.
The Deobandi reformists’ appeal for the education of women in the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries can be seen as a breakthrough forwomen’s social development. Although the Deobandi ulemas’ objective was tobuild up the piousness of Muslim women, religious learning and training wouldeventually enable women to become more conscious of their religious identityand roles in society. Over time, the Deobandi revivalist-reformist appealexpanded its reach across South Asia, profoundly impacting upon the nature ofreligious training and schooling of Muslim women. The influence onBangladesh of the Deoband seminary is apparent from the early years of thetwentieth century, when local Deobandi-type Quomi madrasahs wereestablished in various parts of the country.15
Morality and Religious Education: The Case of Al-Jameyatul al-ArabiaAl-Jameyatul al-Arabia (AJAM) was the first Quomi female madrasahestablished in Bangladesh. It was founded in 1975 by a local alim (Islamicscholar), Maulana Sheikh Abdul Halim Malek, in Haildhor village of AnowaraThana (police jurisdictional area) in Chittagong district, several miles fromChittagong. Maulana Halim founded two separate Quomi madrasahs underthe name AJAM, one for boys and one for girls. The inscription on the gate tothe female madrasah identifies it as an Islamic university for women. MaulanaHalim’s house is located between the two madrasahs and he considers himself apioneer in promoting Muslim women’s education in Bangladesh. He foundeda small madrasah in 1965 in another village, with the goal of introducing aseparate religious education system for Muslim women. The present femalemadrasah is an outgrowth of the smaller one, which later moved to Haildhor.There were 550 students in 2010, of whom 483 resided at the seminary.According to the teachers, the students stay inside the seminary nearly all day.They are given two vacations a year, during the festivals of Eid-ul-Fitr (thereligious festival at the end of Ramadan) and Eid-ul-Azha (the festival
15 Kabir, ‘Replicating the Deobandi Model of Islamic Schooling’, pp.415–28.
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celebrated after the pilgrimage to Mecca). Other than these holidays, studentsare only allowed to go home in cases of family emergency.
It is noteworthy that the country’s oldest Deobandi Quomi madrasah for boys,Darul Uloom Muinul Islam (known as the Hathazari Madrasah), founded in1901 by Deobandi followers, is located in the nearby Hathazari Thana inChittagong district. Another large Deobandi Quomi madrasah for boys—al-Jamia al-Islamia (known as the Patiya Madrasah)—is located in the adjacentPatiya Thana. The presence of these two large Deobandi Quomi madrasahsinfluenced the development of the female Quomi madrasahs. Maulana Halimhas a close association with both madrasahs. He was born into a notableMuslim family, and his father and grandfather obtained advanced religioustraining from the Deoband seminary in India. He pursued higher religiousstudy at the Patiya Madrasah and later became a teacher in a local Quomimadrasah. In Saudi Arabia, he worked for several years as an imam (prayerleader) in a mosque. His experiences in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Easterncountries motivated him to provide the kind of religious training available toArab women to women in Bangladesh.16 His vision was realised when theImam of the Kaba mosque in Mecca visited his village in Bangladesh andenjoined him to settle in his homeland and establish a female religious schoolthere. His early training in a local Deobandi madrasah, teaching experience in aQuomi madrasah and, above all, his experience living in Saudi Arabia,equipped him with unique skills which he brought to developing a women’smadrasah.
Maulana Halim follows the Deobandi model for educating Muslim women, asreflected in his books, booklets and pamphlets as well as the curriculum ofAJAM. In reference to a particular Quranic verse, Maulana Halim contendsthat if women do not have proper knowledge of the Quran and Hadith, theycannot urge men to perform good work or protect them from prohibitedactions.17 Like the Deobandi ulema, he also believes that religiously educatedwomen should serve as the guardians of morality in the domestic context:
The scarcity of separate female religious institutions as well as thepaucity of madrasa education for females is the main cause of thedemoralization of the society. The children of those mothers whoget religious lessons will never be immoral beings. The women who
16 Interview with Maulana Sheikh Abdul Malek Halim, muhatamim (director) of AJAM, Haildhor,
Chittagong, Mar. 2010.17 Maulana Abdul Malek Halim, Emander Nari Gothone Mohila Madrasa Oporiharjo (Dhaka: Jatiyo Mohila
Madrasa Board, 1984), pp.36–7.
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gain knowledge from the madrasa will be highly conscious to payattention to the rights of her husband, parents, neighbours,relatives, elders and the poor. As a result, peace will be upon herfamily and society. Allah, who has created men and women, knowsthat men need knowledge for outside work and, similarly, womenneed knowledge for household work. Women need to acquireknowledge to perform their vital duties for building-up men as wellas the nation. The madrasa-educated mother would be able to raiseher child with good character and moral ethics.18
Maulana Halim depicts women’s domestic roles as important to thedevelopment of the Islamic community. Contemporary ulema such asMaulana Halim also believe that women’s education is more crucial thanmen’s education in the context of Islamising the family and society. Aninscription on the wall of the madrasah states: ‘To teach a man is to teach aperson, but to teach a woman is to teach the entire family’. Thus the socialroles of women are defined in terms of the preservation and perpetuation ofMuslim culture and tradition. In the wake of the mass expansion ofWestern-style, co-educational schools in Bangladesh, the ulema felt itnecessary to extend religious teaching to women. Maulana Halim believesthe openness of the Western education system will extinguish the traditionaldecorous behaviour of Muslim women. He blamed co-education and theabsence of veiling for social disruption and for violence against women suchas divorce, abduction, rape, and murder.19 In the past, women’s religiousregeneration was motivated by the impact of modernity. Now, it ismotivated by a perceived social malaise.
AJAM is deeply influenced by three intertwining social, political and historicalfactors, which had profound implications for the proliferation of religiouseducation: Islamic revivalism; interactions with the Middle East, especiallythrough migration; and ideological transformation within the state ofBangladesh. Islamic revivalist movements, which emerged in the nineteenthcentury on the subcontinent, contributed to the mobilisation of a ‘newawareness and the growing sense of community among Muslims’.20 Thesemovements (including the Deobandi movement) attempted to reshape Muslimindividuals, communities and societies to reflect the authentic tradition of the
18 Ibid., p.14.19 Ibid.20 Asim Roy, ‘Impact of Islamic Revival and Reform in Colonial Bengal and Bengal Muslim Identity: A
Revisit’, in South Asia, Vol.XXII, Special Issue (1999), p.50.
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Muslim faith and religion and promote greater uniformity within the Muslimworld, especially in the Middle East.21 Many of the early pioneers of Islamicrevivalist movements either received advanced religious training in the MiddleEast or were drawn to puritanical forms of Islamic doctrine22 such asWahbabism.23 The discourse, message and mobilised activism of revivalistmovements have encouraged the proliferation of madrasahs across the Indiansubcontinent, including in Bangladesh, though these institutions have beenprimarily concerned with advanced religious training for men. With very fewexceptions, until recently, Muslim women’s access to education was limitedeither to home-based tutoring or attendance at elementary religious schoolssuch as maktabs.24 While some revivalist leaders, for instance the Deobandialim Ashraf Ali Thanawi, popularised the notion of separate religiouseducational training for Muslim women, institutionalised religious seminariesonly began to emerge in the post-Partition Indian subcontinent in the midtwentieth century. For instance, non-state and voluntary forms of religiousschools for Muslim women began to emerge in India in the early 1950s and inPakistan in the late 1970s,25 while the Iranian Revolution of 1979 led to anincrease in the number of female madrasahs in Pakistan in the 1980s due toIran’s patronage of female religious seminaries.26 In Bangladesh, no similarinfluence has been documented. However, the emergence of female religiousseminaries from the mid 1970s onward, as in the case of AJAM, is intricatelyrelated to the state’s ideology and its growing connection with the Middle East.Maulana Halim founded AJAM at a time when Islam had increasingly beenarticulated as the official ideology of the state and Islamic political parties werebeing reinstated.27 The manifestation of pro-Islamic ideology in the stateenabled an increase in the number of Bangladeshi migrant workers going to the
21 Ibid. See also Metcalf, Islamic Revival; and Francis Robinson, ‘Islamic Reform and Modernities in South
Asia’, in Modern Asian Studies, Vol.XVII, nos.2/3 (2008), pp.259–81.22 See Muin-ud-din Ahmad Khan, ‘The Islamic Reform Movements in Bengal in the Nineteenth Century:
Meaning and Significance’, in Rafiuddin Ahmed (ed.), Islam in Bangladesh: Society, Culture and Politics
(Dhaka: Bangladesh Itihas Samiti, 1983), pp.96–111; and U.A.B. Razia Akter Banu, Islam in Bangladesh
(Leiden: Brill, 1992), p.33–42.23 For details about Wahhabi Islam, see Natana J. Delong-Bas, Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to
Global Jihad (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).24 See Jonathan Berkey, The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic
Education (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp.161–81.25 Mareike Jule Winkelmann, ‘From Behind the Curtain’: A Study of a Girl’s Madrasa in India (Leiden: ISIM
Dissertation, Amsterdam University Press, 2005), p.9; and Masooda Bano, ‘Female Madrasas in Pakistan: A
Response to Modernity’, in Religions and Development Working Paper 45 (Birmingham: University of
Birmingham, 2010), p.9.26 Keiko Sakurai, ‘Women’s Empowerment and Iranian Style Seminaries in Iran and Pakistan’, in Keiko
Sakurai and Fariba Adelkhah (eds), The Moral Economy of the Madrasa, pp.32–58.27 Ali Riaz, God Willing: The Politics of Islamism in Bangladesh (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004),
pp.34–8.
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Middle East; many of these workers would engage in charitable and religiousactivities upon their return home, partly to increase their social status andpartly to attract financial aid to their home regions through different channels,such as Islamic non-governmental organisations (NGOs).28
This was an important element in the foundation of AJAM. Maulana Halimhad been exposed to much stricter and more literal forms of Islamic practiceduring the time he spent in Saudi Arabia. Upon his return home, he sought touse the notion of female religious education as an ideological tool to resist thecultural changes caused by globalisation and by the growing trend towardsmodern schooling for Muslim. Although Maulana Halim did not preciselyrecreate the form of religious schooling for women prevalent in Saudi Arabia,he successfully championed the revivalist discourse regarding Muslim women’sreligious education by replicating the Deobandi model of schooling, which hadgained popularity in South Asia as being an ‘authentic’ approach to Islam, akinto other orthodox forms of Islam.
The Reflection of Deobandi Lessons at AJAMAJAM’s women’s campus offers a ten-year course of education. According toAJAM’s brochure, the curriculum is divided into six tiers, from preparatory toadvanced levels: Rowza (preparatory/kindergarten level) for two years;Ebtedayee (primary level) for three years; Al-edadiya (secondary level) fortwo years; Sanabiya (higher secondary level) for one year; Kulliyatul Tafsir(advanced study on the exegesis of the Quran) for one year; and KulliyatulHadith (advanced study on the compendiums of the prophetic tradition) forone year (Appendix 1). Similarly to many other Quomi madrasahs inBangladesh, it employs a large portion of Islamic texts from the Dars-e-Nizami curriculum,29 which have been preserved with some modifications inthe Deoband seminary.
At the preparatory and primary levels, the madrasah uses elementary books onArabic grammar and syntax as well as lessons about daily Islamic observancesand rituals and the Quranic enunciation method. Maulana Thanawi’s BihishtiZewar is assigned to female students from the preparatory level in order toacquaint them with Islamic rules and prescriptions. At the secondary stage,
28 See Riaz, Faithful Education, pp. 142–9.29 Dars-e-Nizami was the first systematic formulation of teaching and instruction used in Indian madrasahs.
See Francis Robinson, The Ulama of Farangi Mahall and Islamic Culture in South Asia (New Delhi: Hurst,
2001), pp.46–50; and Metcalf, Islamic Revival, pp.30–1.
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students are introduced to lessons on Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and Quranicexegesis (tafsir). The content of these lessons gradually increases as the studentsprogress.
Compared to the curriculum of the Deoband seminary,30 AJAM uses 26 (67percent) of the 39 available Deobandi texts used throughout the duration ofschooling (Table 1). Some elementary lessons on Arabic grammar, Islamicobservances, and rituals such as Talimul Islam, Nujhatul Qari and Eso ArbiSikhi are written and published in vernacular forms by local ulema. These areintroduced at the preparatory and primary levels. Although the core Islamictexts from Deoband are predominant in the curriculum of AJAM (Table 1),philosophy, literature, theology, logic and history are not given much attention.Marieke Winkelmann observed similar trends at several female madrasahs inIndia. She says that many books on Islamic jurisprudence, Arabic grammar,logic and philosophy were missing from the curricula of female madrasahs,even though these schools claim to follow the Deobandi curriculum.31 Anideology in which women are subordinate to men might explain the absence ofthese subjects. The ulema of AJAM believe that women do not need to studythese subjects as carefully as men because they will not pursue advanced study.Instead of logic and philosophy, AJAM emphasises methods for enunciatingpassages of the Quran and the principles and guidelines of Islam. Texts such asBihishti Zewar, Al-Qiratul Rasheda and Malabudda Minhu (essential to Islamicknowledge) advise women on how to behave in their daily lives according toIslamic principles and codes. A number of other Islamic texts have beenabridged, partly because of the shortened school year and partly toaccommodate other general subjects such as English, Bengali and mathematics.These non-religious subjects are taught for up to seven years. The femaleteachers at the madrasah assert that seven years spent studying general subjectsis sufficient to prepare female students to teach their children in the future.32
In the upper grades, comprehensive compendiums of fiqh, tafsir and Hadith areprioritised. Portions of these compendiums address family and gender-relatedissues such as marriage, divorce, obedience to husbands, feminine conduct, andetiquette, dress and matters related to bodily purification. These lessons areimparted not only for academic purposes, but also to prepare students forpersonal life. Some examples of this content will be discussed here. In the
30 The Deoband curriculum cited here is available on the Darul Uloom Deoband homepage [http://
www.darululoom-deoband.com/english/index.htm, accessed 6 May 2010].31 Winkelmann, ‘From Behind the Curtain’, p.68.32 Conversation with the female teachers at AJAM during fieldwork.
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highest grade, which focuses on the most authentic Hadith compendium,knowledge of the Bukhari Sharif is imparted (Appendix 1). Specifically, Hadithdrawn from the Bukhari Sharif that relate to women are recited and elaboratedupon.33 Similarly, fiqh texts and compendiums address a broad spectrum ofIslamic rulings, regulations and prescriptions, including issues relating togender. For instance, Mukhtasar al-Quduri (known as al-Quduri in short), acompendium of jurisprudence from the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudencewritten in the tenth–eleventh centuries, is imparted during the seventh year ofschooling at AJAM (Appendix 1). It addresses matters relating to worship,personal lifestyles and relationships, financial transactions and commerce, aswell as penal, judicial and state matters. Gender issues are addressed in thesection of the compendium on personal relationships, describing how womenmay interact with men in certain contexts, such as conducting business
Table 1Common Courses and Texts at AJAM and Deoband Seminary Accord-ing to Subject Contents
Subject Contents
Common Courses and Texts at
AJAM and Deoband Seminary
Arabic grammar/syntax Sarf, Mizan al-Munshaib,Nahw-e Mir, Punj-Gung,Hedayatun Nahw, Ilmus Sigha
Arabic literature Miftahul Arabia, MaqamatCantillation/Quranic enunciation (tajwid) Cantillation and enunciation of
the QuranIslamic jurisprudence (fiqh) Al-Quduri, Usul-e Shashi, Nurul
Anwar, Hedaya, Al-fauzulKabeer
Quranic exegesis (tafsir) Jamalul Quran, TorjomatulQuran, Tafsir al-Jalalyn
Prophetic traditions (Hadith) Bukhari Sharif, Muslim Sharif,Tirmidhi Sharif, Al-Abu DaudSharif, Mishkat, Nukhbatal-Fikr/Sharah Nukhba
Rhetoric/logic Durusul Balaghat, Mukhtasar-ulMa’ani
Theology (kalam) Aqidaut Tahavi
Source: Authors’ compilation from the curricula of AJAM and Deoband seminary
33 Ibid.
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transactions or conveying religious knowledge. However, they are asked tospeak to men from behind a curtain, as the wives of the Prophet did. The textexplains that Imam al-Shafi’i, the founder of the Shafi’i school of Islamicjurisprudence, received lessons from female teachers who sat behind a curtain.The same section of the text advises women not to interact with men unlessnecessary, especially with those who are not mahrem (unmarriageable kin, Ar.mahram) to them.34 Such gendered constructions of human interactions haveprofound implications for the female students and teachers at AJAM: maleteachers conduct classes from behind a curtain in the female section of themadrasah. The disciplinary rules and regulations strongly discourage femalestudents from interacting with any men who are unmarriageable, as we will seein the following section.
Advice manuals written by early Indian ulema also instruct women on howto be pious. The notion of women’s piousness is not only associated withthe expressions and practices of religiosity, but also with women’ssubordination to men, as reflected in the contents of such manuals. Forinstance, Malabudda Minhu, an advice manual written by Qadi ThanaullahPanipati in the late 1800s and taught in many Deobandi Quomi madrasahs,including AJAM, imparts masa’ala (religious advice) relating to ritual,morality and gender issues. One masa’ala in the manual explains that theProphet is believed to have said that if he was to command his followers tobow down to anyone other than Allah, he would enjoin a wife to bow downto her husband.35 Women are discouraged from going outside the homewithout the prior permission of their husbands, as explained in a footnote ofthe Malabudda Minhu. Such gendered discourse indoctrinates femalestudents with notions of subordination, presented as an important featureof both religiosity and piousness.
AJAM is distinctive because it does not give lessons on Urdu and Persianlanguages, unlike the Deoband seminary and other local Deobandi Quomimadrasahs. Bengali alone is used in translating and explaining the lessons of theQuran and Hadith, whereas in many other Deobandi Quomi madrasahs formale students, Urdu and Persian are the mediums for studying classical Islamicsubjects. AJAM maintains that Bengali (as a mother language), English (as aninternational language) and Arabic (as a sacred religious language) are
34 Unmarriageable kin are father, grandfather (maternal/paternal), uncle, brother or husband. Abul-Hasan
al-Quduri al-Baghdadi, Mukhtasar al-Quduri, p.91 [http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/Mukhtasar%20al-
Quduri.pdf, accessed 21 April 2011].35 Qadi Thanaullah Panipati, Malabudda Minhu (ed. and trans. Hafez Maulana Muhammad Habibur
Rahman) (Dhaka: Al-Kawser Prokashani, 2003), p.145.
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necessary, while Urdu and Persian are not.36 Masooda Bano observes that theBengali language movement of the 1950s, the emergence of the new nation-statein 1971 and the state’s reform policy towards madrasahs from the 1980sonwards contributed to Bengali replacing Urdu as the medium of instruction inmany madrasahs in Bangladesh.37 However, many large Quomi madrasahs inBangladesh continue to use Urdu and Persian on the basis that a vast amountof Islamic literature on the syllabus is in Urdu or Persian.38 This contextualisedmodification and transformation of the pedagogical aspect of the madrasah canbe viewed as one part of its adaptation to the local context. Nevertheless, themadrasah follows the core Deobandi pedagogy, as is reflected in its curriculum.AJAM can also be considered a local version of the Deobandi female Quomimadrasahs fuelled by an ‘independent self-propelled mode of operation andgrowth’, like other Deobandi madrasahs throughout South Asia.39
Adab: The Hidden CurriculumIn addition to the formal madrasah curriculum, the female students of AJAMreceive extracurricular lessons during their residence and are encouraged tomaintain proper Islamic etiquette and manners (adab) in their everyday lives. Afemale teacher at the madrasah described the basic difference between thegovernment’s Aliya madrasahs and the independent Quomi madrasahs thus:
The teachers of Aliya madrasah only teach academic lessons inclassrooms, but in Quomi madrasah, we can guide the studentsfrom dawn to night, due to its residential system. Besides theacademic lessons and curriculum, informal guidance helps thefemale students to be perfect women.40
In addition to the advice books and manuals that detail Islamic observancesand rituals, the teaching of proper Islamic etiquette is deeply embedded in thedisciplinary regulations and practices of the seminary. The rules andregulations of the madrasah, which must be followed by the students, are animportant source of adab. The madrasah’s brochure gives rules on how a
36 Maulana Abdul Malek Halim (ed.), Madrasa Sangbidhan (Dhaka: Islami Education Parishad, 1995).37 Masooda Bano, ‘Madrasas as Partners in Education Provision: The South Asian Experience’, in
Development in Practice, Vol.XX, nos.4–5 (June 2010), pp.561–2.38 See Humayun Kabir, ‘Contested Notions of being ‘‘Muslim’’: Madrasas, Ulama and the Authenticity of
Islamic Schooling in Bangladesh’, in Keiko Sakurai and Fariba Adelkhah (eds), The Moral Economy of the
Madrasa, pp.74–5.39 Reetz, ‘The Deoband Universe’, p.158.40 Interview with a female teacher at AJAM.
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female student must dress, who may accompany her outside or to go home,how she should walk in the street, and other rules that correspond with Islamicetiquette. Texts such as the Malabudda Minhu, Bihishti Zewar, Talimul Islamand the Hadith compendiums illuminate moral lessons and detail Islamicprescriptions for daily life. For instance, chapter eight of Malabudda Minhu,taught in grade two at the primary level, prescribes the Islamic ways of eating,dressing, trading and other social conduct.41
The book also prescribes that men and women embrace ‘sunnati dress’(attire used by the Prophet and his Companions). It is forbidden (haram) formen to wear yellow or orange coloured clothes, but women are allowed towear these colours. Men should not dress like women and women areforbidden from dressing like men.42 Both the female students and theteachers dress in salwar-kameez (trousers and long shirts/tunics commonlyworn in South Asia), covering their heads with long scarves. If the femalestudents go outside of the seminary, they must cover their bodies and headsfully using a burqa, usually black in colour. When our female researcher wastalking with the female students and teachers at the mosque close to themadrasah, she was told that openness by women attracts men, which is agreat sin. She was encouraged to wear a burqa to avoid this sin and toestablish her identity as a Muslim.
Biographies of Muslim women who lived during the early period of Islamichistory provide students of the madrasah with ideal images of Muslimwomanhood. Students are encouraged to read these books outside theclassroom. The wives of the Prophet, such as Hazrat Khadija, Ayesha, Zainab,Umme Salma, Hafsa and Umme Habiba, and the daughter of the Prophet,Hazrat Ayesha, are presented as exemplary Muslim women. During thefieldwork for this study, many female students referred to Ayesha as apioneering narrator of the prophetic tradition (Hadith). The students said thatwhen the Prophet’s companions had problems, they sought advice fromAyesha. In one of his books, Maulana Halim urges Muslim women to followthe model of Ayesha, who served as a prayer leader (imam), providingdirections for praying at the mosque. According to Maulana Halim, Ayeshawould give the call to prayer (azan) and the final call for prayer (ikamat) whilestanding in the women’s line.43 Using these ideal images as a basis, AJAM
41 Panipati, Malabudda Minhu, p.123.42 Ibid., p.143.43 Maulana Abdul Malek Halim, Mohila Jamaat and Mohila Imamotir Fatawa, a booklet published by
AJAM, p.6.
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guides its students on how to behave when they venture outside the madradsah.The following rules, inscribed on a wall of the seminary, exemplify some of theguidelines students should follow:
Girls are restricted from going outside the madrasa. They need tochoose a teenage girl (not an adult) to buy daily necessities fromnearby shops. The non-residential students need to enter themadrasa every morning between 10 to 10.30 am, and they shouldleave within 20 minutes after Asr (afternoon) prayer. When theywalk on the road, they need to maintain their discipline. Because itis sunnat (prophetic tradition) to walk on the right side of the roadand to see one’s own feet, they should do so. Two girls should notwalk very closely together on the road.
Disobeying the rules of the madrasah may lead to punishment: therefore, manystudents try to follow these rules. Modesty for women means engaging inlimited social relationships. For instance, students cannot go home or return tothe madrasah from home unless accompanied by unmarriageable kin (mahrem).Students must wear burqas when going home or returning to the madrasah.These rules serve to seclude women from the predominantly male outsideworld.
Secluding women from men is a crucial feature of the pedagogy of femaleQuomi madrasahs in Bangladesh. AJAM strictly enforces separate entrancesfor men and women and no man can enter the madrasah without a reason. Thefemale students use a separate entrance for entering and leaving the madrasah.Male teachers and female students are separated by a curtain, which makes itnecessary for the male teachers to deliver lectures to their students loudly, andthey have no opportunity for face-to-face interactions with female students.Female students enter the classroom prior to their male teacher. After thelecture, the male teacher leaves the room prior to the students. Although menand women pray in the same mosque, which is adjacent to AJAM, there is aseparate entrance for the female students from the madrasah into the mosque.Women pray on the second floor, while the first floor is for men only. There areweekly madrasah meetings where the male and female teachers discuss issuesrelated to the development of education and teaching methods. The femaleteachers state that they give their opinions in the meeting from behind a curtainthat separates them from their male colleagues, reflecting the practice of purdah(a curtain/cover that prevents women from being seen by men), which theyconsider a religious obligation and duty. In this sense, seclusion is considerednecessary for religious piety.
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These examples of moral education demonstrate that the madrasah is animportant socio-religious institution, which plays a significant role in establish-ing women as guardians of Islamic virtue, piety and morality. Educationfunctions as an important mechanism for socialisation and indoctrination.Over the course of madrasah schooling, female students are instructed in howto control their bodies and souls and when and how to act as social actors andagents. Some graduates enter the teaching profession, serving in femalemadrasahs, while male teachers may teach in both male and female madrasahs.Thus, the entire mechanism for the formation of Muslim womanhood is notonly focused on women’s religious piety and virtue, but also on enforcinggendered differences. Borrowing Foucault’s notion, Winkelmann contends thatthe female madrasah functions as a ‘total institution’ which disciplines ‘docilebodies’. The young women are indoctrinated in the ideals of Muslimwomanhood through the particular subjects taught in the classroom andthrough ‘informal education’, which prescribes rules of discipline, body controland behavioural expectations.44 Obligatory religious practices such as veiling,which embody the ideals of Muslim womanhood, the use of practical languagecodes, and the mastery of Islamic observances, rituals and purificationtechniques are all part of a woman’s religious piety, which is deemed necessaryfor the improvement of the entire Muslim community.
Gendered Differences between Male and Female MadrasahsAs mentioned earlier, AJAM has both male and female sections. The women’sschool year is shorter than that of the men, a common phenomenon among allQuomi female madrasahs in Bangladesh. The total length of education at the malemadrasah is twelve years, while the female madrasah offers a shortened version ofthe same curriculum which lasts ten years. In the early years of education, bothboys and girls study in the Nurani section (preparatory level), which is attached tothe male madrasah. Girls also participate in a co-educational system at thepreparatory level until they are seven years old. Then they can be admitted eitherto the female section of AJAM or to another school. Male students begin theirformal study from grade 2 (Sunny Rowza), and female students from grade 3(Sales Rowza). At earlier stage both boys and girls study in the preparatory levels.At the Sanabiya (equivalent to higher secondary) level, male students receive twoyears of schooling and female students receive one year (Appendix 1).
The differences seem to stem from the belief that female students shouldgraduate earlier than their male counterparts. The director of the female
44 Winkelmann, ‘From Behind the Curtain’, pp.75, 77–85.
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madrasah claimed that parents in rural areas become anxious as their daughtersgrow older and prefer that their daughters complete their education before theyreach adulthood (approximately 16 years). Additionally, female studentscannot continue to study for as long because many of them get married, so thegirls’ madrasah provides a shortened course of study. Although AJAM’sadmission brochure states that advanced levels of education are available tofemale students, we did not find that any girls pursued an advanced level ofIslamic education. The length of the course of study can vary from one girls’Quomi madrasah to another, depending on the social context of thesurrounding region. For instance, the female Al-Madania al-Arabia Madrasah(hereafter AMAM), located in Dhaka city, which we visited during ourfieldwork, provides eleven years of schooling, culminating in its highest degree,the Daura-e Hadith or diploma in prophetic traditions. AMAM also provides atwo-year ifta course (research and training on Islamic jurisprudence), alsoknown as the fatawa (religious verdict/opinion) department, which studentsmay pursue after receiving the diploma in prophetic traditions. AJAM also hasa fatawa department for female students, but no students were studying in it atthe time of our visit. Thus, the difference in the length of schooling also dependson the particular context, such as whether a school is in an urban or rural area.In general, however, the duration of schooling and the content of thecurriculum for female Quomi madrasahs are shorter and more condensed thanat male madrasahs.
As shown in Appendix 1, some texts taught in the male madrasah are omittedin the female madrasah. A teacher at the female madrasah told us that theschool’s curriculum
include[s] almost all subjects of the curriculum of the malemadrasah with the exception of some additional subjects that aredeemed especially helpful for male students’ higher study. Thosesubjects are excluded from the female madrasah because the femalestudents do not continue to study at the advanced level.45
Moreover, two new Arabic grammar texts (Fusul-e Akbari and Sarh–e-ibn-Aqaid), one logic text (Mirkat) and one text on Quranic enunciation (Sarh-eTajweed), which are taught in the male section, are missing from the femalesection of AJAM. Texts relating to daily Islamic practices and observances,such as Ad-Din-e Masnuna, are taught at the kindergarten level in the malesection of AJAM, but are not included in the female section. The volume of
45 Interview with a female teacher at AJAM.
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Hadith compendiums is also reduced for female students. During the KulliyatulHadith, the final year of the diploma on prophetic traditions (Daura-e Hadith),five additional Hadith compendiums are available to male students as electivesubjects compared to what is available to female students (Appendix 1).
Although the founder of the madrasah claims that education is equallyimportant for men and women, the pedagogical differences in male and femalemadrasahs are constructed on the basis of the dominant ideological perceptionthat women are socially subordinate to men. Women’s social roles are limitedto the private sphere. Education (including religious education) createsawareness among women, but they are still not considered economically-productive members of the family. Shamima Islam argues that parents usuallyfeel the need to invest more money in their sons, who will support the familyfinancially in the future, than in their daughters, who are expected to getmarried and move out of the home.46 In this regard, madrasah custodians positthat female seminaries need to meet parents’ expectations by providing basicreligious and general lessons to female students within a shortened time-frame.Marriage is considered central to women’s domestic roles and is an importantfactor that influences their educational progress. Women from poor families inrural areas tend to marry earlier than those from middle-class families in urbanareas, and these practices limit the development of women’s education in ruralareas. Jeffery et al. contend that higher studies for women are difficult topromote in rural areas of India because young women with high levels ofeducation are considered less attractive as marriage prospects. The socialperception is that educated women may be arrogant, disrespectful or even morevulnerable to ‘disrepute’ since they have more opportunity to go out of thehome and therefore be exposed to men.47 Social perceptions of marriage and‘the danger of ‘‘disrepute’’’ in India are similar to those in Bangladesh.48
Career Paths of Female Graduates and Resistance to ThemSince the Bangladesh government does not recognise the diplomas awarded byQuomi madrasahs, most female graduates of AJAM have limited opportunitiesin public employment. However, many of them are keen to engage in theteaching profession and to work in madrasahs. A growing number of female
46 Shamima Islam,Women’s Education in Bangladesh: Needs and Issues (Dhaka: Foundation for Research on
Educational Planning and Development, 1977), pp.37–8.47 Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery and Craig Jeffrey, ‘The Mother’s Lap and the Civilizing Mission: Madrasah
Education and Rural Muslim Girls in Western Uttar Pradesh’, in Zoya Hasan and Ritu Menon (eds), The
Diversity of Muslim Women’s Lives in India (Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005), p.110.48 Ibid., p.110.
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graduates wish to become teachers in girls’ madrasahs, though their presence inmale madrasahs is negligible. The ulema who control and manage theadministration of female madrasahs are willing to accept female teachers formanagerial reasons. Since separation from men is strongly emphasised in suchmadrasahs, the male ulema encourage female graduates to join madrasahs notonly to instruct the students, but also to guide and monitor them inside theseminary. In many cases, the female relatives (such as wives, daughters anddaughters-in-law) of a founder of a female madrasah are employed at theoutset. These women live in the seminary-cum-house of the founder, providelessons and watch over the female students. As we observed during ourfieldwork, the wives of the founders of AJAM and AMAM had been assignedto similar purposes since the inceptions of these madrasahs. Althoughunmarried female graduates had earlier not been welcomed as teachers inmadrasahs, this trend has been changing owing to the rapid expansion offemale Quomi madrasahs and the increasing number of female graduates.From among the 25 female teachers at AJAM, four are unmarried teacherswho reside in the seminary. However AMAM still does not employ unmarriedfemale teachers without the consent of their male guardians. Historicallyspeaking, women in Bangladesh have been dependent upon the consent of maleguardians in order to engage in any profession and this has remained the case,to some extent, until today. Obtaining a job in a female madrasah is easier forfemale graduates whose companions are working in the same madrasah or in amadrasah in the same locality. As we found, the husbands of a considerablenumber of female teachers at AJAM also work either as teachers or officeassistants in the male section. As one teacher explained:
Now both of us, I and my husband, are working in the madrasah.However, the salary of the Quomi madrasah is very low and notenough to cover the daily living costs of my family. Since we havestudied in Quomi madrasahs, we do not have any otheralternatives.49
Despite poor wages, the teaching profession in madrasahs does give femalegraduates the opportunity to earn a livelihood. It also transforms their socialand religious roles, from that of learners to conveyors of religious knowledge,although the latter role is still dominated by the male ulema. Moreover, somefemale graduates try to earn double diplomas in order to broaden theiropportunities. They can take examinations at the government’s Aliyamadrasahs examinations to acquire officially-recognised diplomas. One student
49 Interview with a female teacher at AJAM.
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asserted that ‘we should not only think about akherat (hereafter). We need toengage in jobs for better livelihood in the world, and this is why we are takingAliya madrasahs’ examination’.50 In the past, the Quomi madrasah authoritiesdid not permit students to pursue the Aliya madrasahs’ diploma. Now,however, the authorities have realised that the unofficial diplomas from theQuomi madrasahs are major obstacles to their students getting jobs, and sohave become reluctant to oppose these double degree programmes.
In Bangladesh, madrasah-educated women also participate in religious forums,institutions and organisations which are traditionally dominated by maleulema. To a limited degree and in a limited space, they have also begunpreaching and conveying religious knowledge as their male counterparts do,through Tablighi Jamaat activities, religious reading circles51 and home-basedreligious gatherings. We observed that a number of female students andteachers at AMAM, divided into several groups, venture out every Thursdayafternoon to preach Islam to fellow Muslim women in the neighbourhoodsurrounding the madrasah. Some female teachers at AJAM informed us thatthey visit nearby villages once or twice a year to attend and often deliverspeeches at waz mahfils (gatherings for religious sermons)52 organised by thelocal people. Such gatherings last for one or two days and the female teachersand graduates who attend are provided with transportation support, dailymeals and accommodation. Some female teachers from AJAM have beenpreaching Islam at different forms of mahfils for at least the past two decades,just like the male ulema do, though on a smaller scale.53
Does increased participation of Muslim women in religious spheres, such asteaching at madrasahs and in other religious forums, engender any form ofagency for women? Are the female graduates of madrasahs seeking to altermale dominance in the religious sphere? The findings of this study suggest thatfemale graduates are neither entirely passive nor deliberately active in seekingequal gender status. Islamic education provides a stronger sense of Muslimidentity. Female graduates’ participation in semi-formal religious activitieshardly provokes any resistance from society, but neither does it engender a
50 Interview with a grade ten student at AJAM.51 For more information on the reading circles of urban Islamist women in Bangladesh, see Maimuna Huq,
‘Reading the Quran in Bangladesh: The Politics of ‘‘Belief’’ among Islamist Women’, in Modern Asian
Studies, Vol.XVII, nos.2/3 (2008), pp.457–88.52 Waz mahfil is an important medium of preaching Islam to the masses. See Rafiuddin Ahmed, The Bengal
Muslims 1871–1906: A Quest for Identity (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. 1988,), pp.100–4.53 The female ulema deliver lectures on the importance of leading a pious life either on the second day of a
mahfil, which is only attended by women, or in a home-based women’s religious gathering.
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‘feminist consciousness’ regarding their subordinate status. Rather, religiousprescriptions and doctrines rationalise the subordination that they experience.As one female teacher explained:
We cannot demand equal rights like men. We should obey theIslamic injunction that does not recognise equal rights betweenmen and women; rather, their different roles are distinguished. Theholy Quranic verses of Sura An-Nisa describe women’s status andrights.54
Katy Gardner notes that lower-class women in rural Bangladesh ‘may have(limited) agency but their political activism is rare’.55 The lower class has only asmall voice in political activities and little effect on the dominant patriarchalstructure. Patriarchy is deeply rooted in Bangladeshi society and men andwomen of all classes participate in it; this participation, in turn, facilitates theIslamists’ opposition to women’s participation in social efforts, such as NGOactivities.56 Within the dominant patriarchal ideology, ‘newly educated women’are not readily welcome as active contributors to the economy and policy-makers often view the benefits of educating women in terms of improvingfamily welfare ‘rather than preparing women for a more equal place in theeconomy and in society’.57
The agency of female madrasah graduates must be considered in the context ofgender norms and the patriarchal structure and ideology of Bangladeshisociety. It is fair to say that the increasing participation of female graduates inreligious sectors and forums has contributed to the creation of a ‘potentiallywider public’58 which might accelerate the overall Islamisation process and aidthe male ulemas’ present endeavours to reform Bangladeshi society. Religiouseducation constructs moral agency amongst Muslim women which, in turn,facilitates the rationalisation of various notions of a virtuous and pious self in asociety where women’s subordination to men is both historically and culturally
54 Interview with a female teacher at AMAM, Dhaka.55 Katy Gardner, ‘Women and Islamic Revivalism in a Bangladeshi Community’, in Patricia Jeffery and
Amrita Basu (eds), Appropriating Gender: Women’s Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia (New
York: Routledge, 1998), p.219.56 Ainoon Naher, ‘Defending Islam and Women’s Honour against NGOs in Bangladesh’, in Women’s
Studies International Forum, Vol.XXXIII, no.4 (July–Aug. 2010), p.317.57 Naila Kabeer, ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third
Millennium Development Goal’, in Gender and Development, Vol.XIII, no.1 (Mar. 2005), p.18.58 Nancy Fraser, ‘Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing
Democracy’, in Craig Calhoun (ed.), Habermas and the Public Sphere (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992),
pp.109–42, at p.124.
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constructed. On the other hand, religious education also increases opportu-nities for many Muslim women to actively participate in the religious spherewhich has historically been dominated by the male ulema.
ConclusionThe number of female Quomi madrasahs in Bangladesh has increased in thelast several decades, with most graduates entering the teaching profession,working in existing madrasahs or establishing new ones. The establishment ofmale madrasahs has long predominated. Today many ulema are enthusiasticabout setting up female madrasahs as it is an attractive way of expanding theirlivelihood, and setting up new madrasahs enhances the social position of theulema in particular communities. On the other hand, the ulema do notendeavour to make any drastic changes in the traditional Islamic educationalsystem. Their approach to Islamic schooling is part of a larger Islamic revivalistmovement, which emerged in the colonial period. Through the religioustraining in his madrasah, the founder of AJAM increased women’s access tothe mosque, in itself a remarkable development for women whose participationin public religious institutions is typically limited. However such a change hashad little effect on the male dominance of public religious institutions andpractices.
The Deobandi ulema emphasise traditional religious learning in order tocultivate Muslim women who are pious, virtuous, moral and able to guide anddefend Islamic morals and principles within the scope of their participation inpublic religious spheres. In contemporary Bangladeshi society, the ulema usesimilar reformist discourse for their distinctive system of education. Inaddition, they incorporate some practical subjects and utilise the Bengalivernacular as the main language of study, making madrasah education locallyacceptable and adaptable. Despite the expansion of modern systems of highereducation among large numbers of Muslim women, the reformist discourse hashad significant appeal in Bangladeshi society due to its compliance with adeeply-rooted patriarchy and its maintenance of gender norms. As well,growing interactions with the Middle East, and the spread of Islamic reformistmovements which seek greater conformity with the larger Islamic world andpromote Islam as an important state ideology and persist in treating women asless important economic agents, have contributed to the sustenance andcontinuation of Islamic reformist movements such as the Deobandi movement.The continued use of archetypal texts in Islamic lessons is a factor in theproblematic relationship between the state and Quomi madrasahs. The latterinstitutions largely operate independently of the government which cannot (or
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does not) really control them. Very often, madrasahs resist the government’sreforms in an effort to protect themselves against the secularising initiatives ofthe state education curriculum and to protect their traditions and authority.
Women’s visibility and mobility in Bangladesh have increased significantly inrecent decades, as socio-economic pressures compel many women to ‘stepoutside the bounds of social norms’.59 Religiously-educated Muslim womencan now earn a livelihood by working in female madrasahs. The fact thatmadrasah-qualified women are confined to poorly-paid religious work, as wehave seen, mainly reflects the reality that the education they have earned is notrecognised by the government; their education might, therefore, be seen as alimitation to their ability to earn a living. Although their increasingparticipation in public religious institutions and forums has given themdefined, although confined, opportunities, they do not appear to be motivatedby a desire to dilute the dominance of men. Therefore, it would be naive toconceptualise religiously-educated Muslim women as having the agency topotentially resist the status quo. Nevertheless, religious education hasinadvertently facilitated women’s engagement in the religious sphere. Bydrawing them out of private spaces such as the home, it has the potential tocreate a wider public for them than has historically been the case in Bangladesh.
59 Shelley Feldman, ‘(Re)presenting Islam: Manipulating Gender, Shifting State Practices and Class
Frustrations in Bangladesh’, in Jeffery and Basu (eds), Appropriating Gender, p.50.
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Appendix 1Daily Class Routines of Al-Jameyatul al-Arabia (AJAM) for Boys andGirls
School Year/Grade
Lessons at Female
Madrasah
Lessons at Male
Madrasah
First year
Sunny Rowza(Kindergartengrade-2)
Bengali, Eso Arbi Sikhi(Let’s Learn Arabic),Maths, Tajweed(enunciation ofQuran), English,Talimul Islam(lessons of Islam)
Second year
Sales Rowza(Kindergartengrade-3)
Quran Majid, Maths,Bengali, TalimulIslam, English,Handwriting,Ad’durusul Arabi(Arabic grammar)
Moshk-e Qirat (Quranrecitation), Maths,Ad’durusul Arabi,Ad-Din-e Masnuna(daily Islamicpractices), English,Bengali,Handwriting
Third year
Rabe Rowza(Kindergartengrade-4)
English, Maths, SohojTajweed (Quranicenunciation),Talimul Islam-2,Quran Majid,Bihishti Zewar(HeavenlyOrnaments),Hedayatus Sarf(Arabic grammar),Bengali
Bihishti Zewar,Bengali/SocialStudies, QuranMajid, HedayatusSarf, Maths/Science,English, Eso ArbiSikhi-2/Word Book
Fourth year
Awal Ebtedayee(Primary grade-1)
Mizan al-Munshaib(Arabic grammar),English, Bengali,Nujhatul Qari(Quranicenunciation), Maths,Eso Arbi Sikhi
Nujhatul Qari, EsoArbi Sikhi, Mizanal-Munshaib, Math/Science, TalimulIslam, Bengali/Social Studies,English
Fifth year
Sunny Ebtedayee(Primary grade-2)
Malabudda Minhu(essential knowledgeof Islam), JamalulQuran (Quranic
Bengali/Social Studies/History, Nahw-eMir, Mofidul Talibin(rhetoric),
(continued)
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Appendix 1 (Continued).
School Year/Grade
Lessons at Female
Madrasah
Lessons at Male
Madrasah
lessons), Nahw-e Mir(Arabic syntax),Mofidul Talibin(rhetoric), Bengali,Punj-Gung (Arabicgrammar), English,Maths
Punj-Gung, English,Malabudda Minhu,Jamalul Quran,Maths/Science
Sixth year
Sales Ebtedayee(Primary grade-3)
Hedayatun Nahw(Arabic syntax),Bengali, Al-QiratulRasheda (Arabicliterature), Maths,Al-Shefahul Muas’aSarf (Islamicjurisprudence),English, Ilmus Sigha(Arabic grammar)
Hedayatun Nahw,English, Al-QiratulRasheda, Maths/Science, Bengali,Al-Shefahul Muas’aSarf, Ilmus Sigha
Seventh year
Awal Edadiya(Secondary grade-1)
Fatrun Nidah (Arabicsyntax), Al-Quduri(Islamicjurisprudence),Bengali, English,Usul-e Shashi(principles of Islamicjurisprudence),Torjomatul Quran-1(Quran translation,sections 1–10)
Fatrun Nidah,Al-Quduri, Maths/Science, Zad-tutTalibin (prophetictradition)/Fusul-eAkbari (Arabicgrammar), Mirkat(logic), Bengali/Social Studies,English
Eighth year
Sunny Edadiya(Secondary grade-2)
Durusul Balaghat(rhetoric), Maths,English, NurulAnwar: KitabullahUsul-e Shashi(principles of Islamicjurisprudence),Bengali, Hedaya-1(Islamicjurisprudence, part-1), Torjomatul
English, Maths/Science, Bengali/Social Studies,Torjomatul Quran,Sarh-e ibn-Aqaid-1(Arabic grammar),Usul-e Shashi,Sarh-e Tajweed(grammar ofQuranicenunciation)
(continued)
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Appendix 1 (Continued).
School Year/Grade
Lessons at Female
Madrasah
Lessons at Male
Madrasah
Quran-2 (Qurantranslation, sections11–20)
Ninth year
Awal Sanabiya(Higher secondarygrade-1)
Hedaya-2, TorjomatulQuran-3 (sections21–30), Maqamat-eHariri (Arabicliterature),Mukhtasar-ulMa’ani (rhetoric),Al-Faujul Kabeer(methods of Quranicexegesis), Nukhbatal-Fikr (methods ofprophetictraditions), NurulAnwar (principles ofIslamicjurisprudence),Miftahul Arabia(Arabic literature)
Miftahul Arabia,Durusul Balaghat,Hedaya-1, NurulAnwar: Kitabullah,Torjomatul Quran,Maqamat-e Hariri,Sarh-e ibn-Aqaid-2
Tenth year
Sunny Sanabiya(Higher secondarygrade-2)
Hedaya (part 2),Miftahul Arabia,Nurul Anwar: Kitab-e Sunnah,Mukhtasar-ulMa’ani, Nukhbat al-Fikr/Al-FaujulKabeer, TorjomatulQuran, Maqamat-eHariri
Eleventh year
Kulliyatul Tafsir(Sciences of Quranicexegesis)
Hedaya (parts 3–4),Aqidaut Tahavi(theology), MishkatVols.1–2 (prophetictraditions), Tafsir al-Jalalyn (exegesis ofthe Quran)
Aqidaut Tahavi,Hedaya (part 3),Tafsir al-Jalalyn(part 1), Tafsir al-Jalalyn (part 2),Hedya (part 4),Mishkat Vols.1–2
(continued)
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Appendix 1 (Continued).
School Year/Grade
Lessons at Female
Madrasah
Lessons at Male
Madrasah
Twelfth year
Kulliyatul Hadith(Sciences ofprophetic traditions)
Bukhari SharifVols.1–2 (prophetictraditions), MuslimSharif Vols.1–2(prophetictraditions), TirmidhiSharif Vols.1–2(prophetictraditions), Al-AbuDaud Sharif, fullvolume (prophetictraditions)
Bukhari Sharif Vols.1–2, Muslim SharifVols.1–2, TirmidhiSharif Vols.1–2,Al-Abu Daud Sharif,full volumeElective: NasaiSharif, TahaviSharif, Ibn-e MajaSharif,Muatta ImamMalik, Muatta ImamMohammad
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