Reaching the Minds of Young Muslim Women: Girls' Madrasas in India
by Mareike Jule Winkelmann
About The Book/Author :
In Reaching the Minds of Young Muslim Women, the author investigates traditional institutions of Islamic learning for Muslim girls. While a lot is known or thought to be known about madrasas for boys, similar Islamic schools for girls have up to now escaped public attention by and large. In the aftermath of 9/11, madrasas received and continue to receive much public attention, also in the media, mostly owing to the alleged link between madrasa education and forms of violence.
This study asks what is taught in madrasas for girls, how they emerged, whether they are different from madrasas for boys, and how the young women interpret Islam in the light of what they learn. Observations suggest that apart from what is taught officially, the informal curriculum plays an equally if not more important role. The aim of studying in the madrasa appears to reach beyond formal education, as life and learning in the madrasa serve to bring about an all-encompassing reform of the students.
About the Author
Mareike Winkelmann received her MA in Theology from the Theological University Kampen (Netherlands) in 1999. Her thesis dealt with Islam in India and attempted to revisit history in order to find new approaches for a theology of reconciliation. In 2000 she obtained her Mphil from the ISIM in Leiden (Netherlands) after investigating the early history of Muslim women\'s education in India. Her ongoing interest in Islam in India, women\'s education, and theology then formed the basis for her PhD research at the ISIM between 2001 and 2005. Her PhD dissertation \'From behind the Curtain. A study of a girls\' madrasa in India\\\' (AUP 2005) was successfully defended in December 2005.
REVIEW
'This book, a revised version of the author's doctoral thesis, submitted to the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, The Netherlands, is probably the first published work on girls' madrasas in India. In contrast to most other writings on madrasa education, the book is a detailed, empirically grounded study of a single madrasa, providing interesting ethnographic details and insights that are often missing in generalized accounts of madrasas. (…) This pioneering work on girls' madrasas is a welcome addition to the growing literature on madrasas in South Asia. The sense of balance and empathy that is evident throughout the text is remarkable, as the author seeks to provide an insight into the ways in which those associated with the madrasa themselves imagine their world.'
Yoginder Sikand Economic and Political Weekly 2 September 2006
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges