Making of Kamil Momina

This chapter focuses on the transition of the students from their native homes to the madrasa by exploring the role of education in defining and translating the imagined ideal of Islamic Womanhood in practice.

Journeys of Madrasa Students

This chapter presents a series of ethnographic portraits. Each of the portraits embody, manifest, and to some degree comment on the different faces of women’s engagement with girls’ madrasas against the backdrop of India’s changing social religious and educational landscape.

Introduction

The first chapter broadly introduces the key themes of my research. It details the central argument of the book and how theoretical debates on imagination, aspiration, gender, and piety inform the argument. It goes on to detail the key research questions and how the research engages with these questions in the coming chapters. It also discuses the ethnographic methodology adopted by the researcher in the field.

In-between Spaces

This chapter locates madrasas within the broader socio-political landscape of India. It focuses on three trends— marginalization of Muslims in India, growth of right wing Hindu movement, and the rise of a particular form of Islamic reformism amongst Muslims and its impact on women. It goes on to focus on Madrasa Jamiatul Mominat where the author conducted her fieldwork.

Conclusion

This chapter weaves together the insights from the earlier chapters and discusses the contribution of the work to anthropology of Islam education and gender.

From Madrasa to University

This chapter provides an insight into girls’ lives beyond the madrasa by focusing on the transition made by some madrasa students from girls’ madrasas to higher education in Universities that recognize madrasa degrees.

Situating Madrasa Education for Girls

This chapter sets out the historical background and contemporary context of girls’ madrasa education in India. It locates the present research within the broader academic literature. I argue that most research has either completely ignored the everyday experiences of students studying in madrasas or bracketed it in conceptual binaries of social reproduction and empowerment. Drawing on recent anthropological literature, I illustrate an important conceptual gap in research on madrasa education: the tendency to conflate madrasa educational regimes with student practice. In the last part I discuss the theoretical concepts of community, pious self-fashioning, and aspirations that inform my research.

Coda

This chapter highlights the policy reflections that emanate from the present research. It problematizes the policy approach that locates contemporary madrasas in binaries of modernity and tradition.

Becoming a Kamil Momina

This chapter focuses on the everyday lives of the girls inside the madrasa to understand the tension between the ideational construct of an ideal Muslim women and its practice. The madrasa students’ espousal and embodiment of madrasa norms coexists with practices that are not permissible in the madrasa.