This week, the media reported the case of two sisters who have been fighting threats and attacks to pursue their dream of becoming graduates. Find more!
“I was screaming and crying for help. My father and brother lay unconscious and my mother was writhing in pain — all of them were lying in a pool of blood. I lost all consciousness minutes later,” says 19-year-old Samina Sheikh, recounting the day when her neighbour Mohammad Ali Ansari had attacked her and her family on March 17 this year.
Samina and her sister Zarina are college students who live in a 100sqm room in a chawl in Madanpura, Byculla. Their family had to face threats from Ansari when they refused to follow his diktat that the two sisters should not be allowed to study. Because they are girls. (See DNA report on June 13, 2007)
Ansari started harassing them when the sisters completed their SSC board exams. The family was forced to move into another house for two years. But when they returned, he started threatening them again. Concerned about his daughters’ safety, their father Yasin Ali asked them to discontinue their studies.
But Samina didn’t want to give up on her dream. Without telling anyone, Samina applied for admission in St Xavier’s College. “I was thrilled when I got selected,” says Samina. She eventually told her uncle, Mohammad Abdullah.
“She came to me with hope, asking me to persuade her father to allow her to study,” recalls Abdullah. When Abdullah told her father about her admission, he broke down. “He hugged me and asked me to forgive him for not allowing me to study,” says Samina. “The moment was very special”.
However, the threats did not cease. “On March 7, as I was preparing for my physics test in the corridor of our chawl, Ansari appeared. He hit me with a chair and warned me against going to college. I was very scared,” continues Samina.
“Those times were frustrating. The police couldn’t help and even after they warned him, he continued to threaten us.”
“But I was clear about one thing all through this — I had to complete my education. I had already come so far and gone through so much. I didn’t want to quit,” said Samina. “I wanted to hang in there for some more time.”
“The irony is that my religion doesn’t tell me not to study. Prophet Mohammad has said that people — a boy or a girl — can even go to China to study,” says Samina. “The likes of Ansari are ignorant and misrepresent Islam.”
Samina wears a burkha to college. “I wear it because I don’t feel safe in my locality,” says Samina. “I have never worn a pair of jeans in my life except when I participated in Malhar (a popular college fest).
I have many college friends but most of them have boyfriends. That’s why I don’t hang out with them. But once I did sneak out to see a movie with them.”
“I gave up on my dream to be a doctor when I passed my SSC. We are nine siblings and I realised that my father would never be able to afford the expenses,” says Samina. She also loves teaching and has been taking tuitions since her 10th grade. She puts in at least three hours after college and earns around Rs3,000 a month.
Samina says she wants to set an example for other girls who may be facing the same problem. “I want to give them hope so that they can dream and strive to fulfill their dream,” she says.
What does her family feel about all this? “I am very proud of my sister. I could never have been as brave as she has been,” says her brother Mohammad Faizan.
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