Fatima Sheikh was born on 9th Jan 1831 in Pune. She is widely known among India’s first Muslim woman educator, Who with Savitri bai phule and Jyotirao Phule pioneered the modern education for girls, women and dalits. The three went door-to-door educating and spreading awareness among oppressed and underprivilaged people of society, who were denied education based on gender, class or religion.
Fatima Sheikh may be a lesser known name in the history but her contribution towards the society is unforgettable. Sheikh who is sister of Sheikh Usman is among the first Muslim women teacher who stood side by side with Savitribai Phule and Jyotirao Phule and worked for the education of dalits, muslim women and girls.
Fatima and Usman opened the door of their house to Jyotirao phule and his wife Savitribai phule when Jyotirao’s father asked them to vacant their ancestral house as he was against their socio reform agenda. It was Fatima’s house where they co-founded Indigenous Library and school.
Fatima Sheikh who believed in the teachings of Islam which gives equal rights of education to men and women had to face tough times fighting the odds of her own society when her work of introducing modern education for girls and muslim women didn’t go down well with the patriarchy and she was opposed by many Muslim Clerics of her time who were against the modern education of girls and women.
Fatima is a lesser known name than Savitribai because Fatima never wrote about her work on the other hand Savitribai Phule has well documented her work in the form of letters, thesis, essays and even poems which makes her more famous than Fatima. But Savitri bai even mentioned briefly about Fatima’s contribution in letters to her husband which is why history throws some light on Fatima’s work.
A Muslim woman who fought for a casteless society and for modern education for girls and established the first school sadly could not get the rightfull place in history as She was also ignored by many Muslim Scholars who honoured Sir Syed Ahmed for pioneering school in 1871 but Ignored Fatima Sheikh who also pioneered a school much before that.
Only in the year 2014 Indian government took some efforts to highlight the achivements of Fatima Sheikh by featuring her profile in Urdu textbooks of Maharashtra alongside other revolutionary Indian educators.
