FROM MOTHER'S TO DAUGHTER -1
Mary Nafeesa Sahiba in Crescent Weekly Ramazan Eid Special dated 7th October 1975.
My dear Fathima, Assalamu Alaikum.
No doubt you would be wondering what has happened to me, why I have not been writing to you, and so on. What can I do? Who told me, in my old age, to work so hard for another examination? Anyway, since I asked for it, it was upto me to work hard and keep up the reputation, all of you have given me, as an indefatigable hard worker! By the grace of Allah, all went well and I attended the convocation about which I will tell you later. There are other things I wish to say now.
I have been looking up the statistics of our girls entering various educational institutions, Pre-Arts, Secondary, University, girls taking degrees, taking up careers, girls qualifying themselves for everything from house-keeping to the Administrative Services. The number is increasing year by year. The number of drop-outs from schools, or literates able to read and write aided by various media, the newspapers, magazines, radio, wall posters, the cinema and now the television.
Progress Dismays
I have every reason to be elated, I suppose, by this progress our girls are making, I’m not feeling elated at all. I look around me at this progress, and feel hurt, let down and helpless. Oh, Fathima, this progress dismays and if I say, I’m sure you deserve an explanation.
You see, my girl, even today in the West, people think that Muslim women are second class citizens of Islam! They do not care to know of the status, the dignified, honourable status, that Islam offers a woman if she would but take the trouble to understand it, and after all when our own women also do not bother to learn what their position is, why and how can we expect others to know or try to get at the truth of it?
And why am I depressed? All this is only too well-known. Do they do? They somehow admit their children to schools. Once a child starts going to school, naturally 10%, I’m sure can and do attend religious instructions at home. The other 90% don't. Regarding modesty, not only their dress, but all sorts of things, in general, are current. In the material way lay hands on, in earlier 20’s or the later, it is not all conducive to the development of the character. Inspite of the glory that was Indian in our literature, today the fashion is to produce literature generally that borders on the vulgar and the obscene - all in the name of various "realities"!
No Sense of Social Values
Swept by this tide, our girls especially, find themselves marooned on an island of ignorance. No training in religion at home; none in schools and colleges if they’re Government institutions based on other religions if the institutions are managed by various other communities. They pick up something here and there and as they grow up, neither do I see in them an awareness of religion, nor do I find in them a sense of social values. Perhaps it would not be wrong to say that irrespective of religious backgrounds, most of our young people are like that. Perhaps you may not agree. I don’t know.
I would like to dedicate these thoughts to the memory of my beloved Bhayya, marhoom A. A. Ravoof Saheb, whose deep insight, unfailing judgement, understanding and encouragement have all contributed, in the largest measure, in making me what I am today. My tears are shed, nor should I shed more, for I have to save them to irrigate the barren fields of ignorance—the least I can do to honour Bhayya’s memory! NAFEESA
More in my next. Meanwhile, wishing you a very happy Eidul Fitr. Vassalam.
Your loving
NAFEESA
NAFEESA
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