New Delhi: Today's Google Doodle was dedicated to Fatima Sheikh, an educator and feminist icon who is often considered the first Muslim teacher. Sheikh was born on this day in 1831 in Pune. She worked alongside other social reformers Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule.
She co-founded the Indigenous Library in 1848, one of India's first schools for girls, opened under their roof. Phules' joined hands with the Fatima Sheikh and taught Dalits and Muslim women and children who were denied education based on class, religion, or gender.
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Sheikh met Savitribai Phule while both were enrolled at a teacher training institution run by Cynthia Farrar, an American missionary. The Phules' were evicted for attempting to educate lower castes but moved in with the Fatima Sheikh and her brother Mian Usman Sheikh.
She is hailed as one of the first feminist icons who took up causes she believed in like education for all. It is said that sheikh went door to door inviting children of the downtrodden community to study at the Indigenous Library. She taught at all five schools that the Phules' went on to establish and she taught children of all religions and castes. Sheikh took part in the founding of two schools in Bombay in 1851.
Their efforts got recognized by the provide opportunities to those born in the lower caste, got recognised as the Satyashodhak Samaj (Truthseekers’ Society) movement.