Daily Times

Throughout the history, women have played a significant role in shaping the political and social history of our world. Women have since then been living and resisting sexism.

Woman of substance or a feminist to my interpretation has nothing to do with degrading men. Feminism is about respecting diverse women’s experiences, identities, knowledge and strengths, and striving to empower all women. It’s about levelling the playing field between genders, and ensuring that diverse women and girls have the same opportunities in life available to boys and men. Women aren’t just exposed to sexism; racism, ageism, and religious persecution are intrinsically linked to how they experience inequality. The relationship between men and feminism has been complex. There have been positive and negative reactions and responses, depending on the individual man and the social context of the time. These responses have varied from pro-feminism to anti-feminism.

Fatima Al-Fihri

Over 1000 years ago, amongst a migrant community in the western districts of Morocco, the vision and investment of one woman paved the path for the founding of the world’s first university: the University of Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco. Fatima Al-Fihri was born around 800 AD in present-day Tunisia. In the early 9th century, the al-Fihri family, left Tunisia and immigrated to Fez, Morocco.

Courtyard of the mosque with the 10th-century minaret, seen from inside one of the two 17th-century Saadian pavilions. Credit Abdel Hassouni

Set up in the year 859, the University of Al-Qarawiyyin was the first degree-granting educational institute in the world. Students from all over the world travelled to study a wide range of subjects, ranging from natural sciences to languages to astronomy, and Fatima herself studied there too. During the medieval times, the University was considered a major intellectual centre. Moreover, terms and concepts associated with higher education are all traceable back to the practices found in Al-Qarawiyyin. Today the Al-Qarawiyyin University is distinguished to be the oldest existing university in the world. The University of Al-Qarawiyyin is still in operation today, and amid its other attractions, houses one of the world’s oldest libraries. The library comprises over 4000 manuscripts. The oldest existing and continually operating university, the University of Al Qarawiyyin predates the creation of all of the world’s most established and impressive educational institutions, including the University of Bologna 1088, the University of Oxford 109, the University of Salamanca 1243, and Harvard University 1636.

Savitribai Phule

Savitribai Phule was born in 1831 in the village of Naigaon in, Maharashtra, India. At the time of her marriage, Savitribai Phule had no education. After completing her teacher’s education, Savitribai started teaching girls at the Maharwada in Pune, alongside Sagunabai who was a revolutionary feminist as well as a mentor to Jyotirao. By the end of 1851, Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule were running three different schools for girls in Pune.

Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule’s success came with much opposition from the local community with conservative views. The Phules faced stiff opposition because of the conservative (Brahmin) and marginalized caste to which they belonged. The Sudra community had been denied education for thousands of years. Savitribai along with her partner Jyotirao were revolutionaries of their time. A young couple who wanted their love for one another to manifest as work for a society they felt was ill with Brahminism. Savitribai Phule, dared to challenge the Brahimincal norms by taking knowledge to all those who were forbidden.

Later on moving out of Jyotirao’s father’s home, the Phules moved in with the family of one of Jyotirao’s friends, Usman Sheikh. It was there that Savitribai met Fatima Sheikh. Fatima Sheikh and Savitribai both graduated together. Fatima Sheikh was one of the first Muslim teachers of India. They opened a school in Sheikh’s home in 1849. In the 1850s, Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule established two educational trusts. They were entitled: the Native Female School, Pune and the Society for Promoting the Education of Mahars, Mangs, and Etceteras. These two trusts ended up encompassing many schools which were led by Savitribai Phule and later, Fatima Sheikh.

The plague of 1897 wreaked havoc in India due to limited medical facilities. Savitribai and her adopted son opened a clinic to treat those affected by the Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague. The clinic was established at outskirts of Pune, in an area free of contagion. Savitribai died a heroic death trying to save ten years old boy who contacted the virus. She carried him on her back to the hospital. In the process, Savitribai Phule caught the Plague and died at on the 10th of March, 1897. In 2015 University of Pune was renamed as Savitribai Phule Pune University. Along with Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and Annabhau Sathe, Savitribai Phule has become an icon in particular for the Dalit Mang caste.

Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu

By blood, I am Albanian.

By citizenship, an Indian.

By faith, I am a Catholic nun.

As to my calling, I belong to the universe.

As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.

Teresa was born into a Kosovar Albanian family in Skopje, Ottoman Empire (at present the capital of North Macedonia). Fluent in five languages, Bengali, Albanian, Serbian, English and Hindi, she made occasional trips outside India for humanitarian reasons. Teresa left home in 1928 at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Ireland, to learn English with the view of becoming a missionary. She arrived in India in 1929 and began her novitiate in Darjeeling, where she learned Bengali and taught at St. Teresa’s School near her convent. She began missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple, white cotton sari with a blue border. After adopting Indian citizenship, she spent several months in Patna to receive basic medical training at Holy Family Hospital and ventured into the slums. She established a school in, Calcutta. At the beginning of 1949 Teresa was joined in her effort by a group of young women, and she laid the foundation for a new religious community helping the poorest among the poor.

In 1952, Teresa opened her first hospice with help from Calcutta officials. She converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying, free for the poor, and renamed it Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart. Those taken to the home received medical attention and the opportunity to die with dignity in accordance with their faith: Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received extreme unction (Anointing of the Sick is a sacrament of the Catholic Church that is administered to a Catholic who, having reached the age of reason, begins to be in danger due to sickness or old age).

By 1996, Teresa operated 517 missions in over 100 countries. Her Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands, serving the “poorest of the poor” in 450 centres worldwide.

I would like to honour and esteem the women who achieved extraordinary heights outside the box. They were the weakest but proven the strongest when they believed in themselves. They have inspired me in many ways.

The writer is a traveller and freelance writer based in UK. He has previously written for @the_nation @Dawn_com @DunyaNews @TheAsians He can be contacted on Twitter @SyedIHusain