Some institutions are trying not to.

Mumbai has had a tradition of established and well-to-do Muslims, especially from business communities educating their women and helping them get into the mainstream. Established nearly a century ago, Anjuman e Islam’s Allana English School, facing Victoria Terminus in South Mumbai, acknowledges that English, Urdu and Islamic thought, all can be integrated under one roof. From 150 students in 1986, there are now 3000 students here. Wasim Jaffer, the Bombay opening batsman, is one of its alumni.

They have co-educational classes, a minimal fee, and deeniyat (religious instruction) in just two periods a week. Zakiya Farid, 41, is the principal here. She explains how the school concentrates on children who can’t keep pace with the system, so as to minimize drop-out rates, the most common problem with Muslim girl students.

The children here wear skirts or salwars, as they please, they don’t have to cover their heads. But what about Zakiya herself? The elegant black chiffon headgear? Is it by choice? Convent-educated Zakiya says: “It is and I feel it is the spirit of my faith to be modestly behaved when with other men. It doesn’t affect my work and I don’t force it on my staff or students. We want them to decide on their own.”

There are girls like Shaheen who have done that. Her parents sell vegetables and she is taking a video-editing course in Dadar, also attends a one-day workshop every month with 89 other Muslim girls with actor Rahul Bose. “We are made to think, talk and argue. We recently had a debate about Rang de Basanti, why the boys kill those people, and if it was right or not.”

... contd.