By Shenila Khoja-Moolji for Washington Post – February 4, 2016: Why do groups as different as the Taliban, Boko Haram, the White House’s “Let Girls Learn” and the Nike Foundation’s “Girl Effect” converge on the issue of girls’ education? What makes girls’ education an ideal site of investment, advocacy — or attacks — for them?
Girls’ education has historically been a way in which populations have been marked as civilized/uncivilized and modern/backward. This has especially been the case in relation to Muslims.
For instance, British colonial officers often used the tropes of the ‘uneducated Muslim’ and ‘secluded Muslim woman’ to legitimize their authority and establish the superiority of their cultural values.
Local practices, such as the purdah (veiling) and early marriage were frequently highlighted to signal the degraded condition of Indian Muslims, evidence that worked well within missionary and rescue narratives.
Read more at the source: www.washingtonpost.com
Recent mainstream press articles by Shenila Khoja-Moolji:
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