Emel Magazine Review Of 'zahra's Ftka'

‘Zahra’s First Term at the Khadija Academy’ by Sufiya Ahmed, Bibi Publishing Review by Marie Aubrechtova Emel magazine March 2008 Upon reading this charming little book, it immediately reminded me of my Enid Blyton days, when I read the classic Malory Towers and St. Claire’s about middle class English girls and their adventures at boarding school. I used to read them when I was about the age of the heroine Zahra, who herself is 11 years old. In this book, Zahra’s parents send her off to a Muslim boarding school for girls, while they leave for Africa to help orphans with their expertise as medical doctors. Zahra simply does not want to go to boarding school, and resents her parents for abondoning her. Her plans to get expelled from the school so that her parents are forced to take her back home, soon diminish, as she makes many new friends and actually starts to enjoy her time at the academy. The book is peppered with lessons on Islamic theology, manners and morals. The girls are reminded to always say ‘peace be upon him’ after saying the Prophet’s name. They are taught that they should believe in their religion not because they were born as Muslims but because that the Quran is the truth through their use of reason and intellect. They are taught that the Quran had foretold scientific discoveries that were discovered only in modern times: “The Quran teaches us that God set mountains on the earth so that the earth will not shake … Well, geography now has the modern theory of plate tectonics … This theory claims that mountains work to stabilize the earth. They stop the earth from shaking. This theory has only been around since the 1960s, yet it was revealed in the Quran fourteen hundred years ago.” A particularly noteworthy part of the book is when the girls have a ‘media monitoring’ class where they discuss the way current media collectively portrays Muslims in a negative way and links them to the crimes of a tiny minority of extremists who have committed terrible crimes and killed innocent people. This part of the book clearly seeks to equip young Muslim girls with confidence and reassurance that may have been shaken because of world events. Other aspects promote the Islamic principles of sharing and neighbourliness: during Ramadan the girls experience the highs and lows of fasting and they all go out to the local village to distribute food to the elderly. They are told that they should respect the elderly and not make any distinctions between Muslims and nonMuslims. The Academy gives the girls, and consequently the reader, a very positive message. They are taught that they are equal to men and can accomplish anything they want to in life. They are to be achievers and defenders of their rights. “No one apart from yourself will defend your right to exist as you choose,” their headmistress tells them on their first day.

This book raises some important points for Muslim girls, and would provide a reasonably good read for an 11 year old. On the downside the book gets a bit dull at times, and at a superficial level, the design on the front cover leaves much to be desired. However, this is a noble attempt at focusing on the subject of a Muslim girls’ school in a creative way. It is encouraging to read about such a respected and high achieving school for young Muslim girls, such a school would definitely be welcome in the real world. -ends-