Mothering a Muslim
Nazia Erum
2017
Juggernaut
pp. 220
The book is a non fictional account of the lives of urban Indian Mulsims. The book presents anecdotes from the lives of young children and their parents from various cities, with a predominance of NCR based incidents. The author shares her concerns and feelings over raising a daughter in an environment that is increasingly biased against Muslims. She documents stories of discrimination in various schools in India. Parents are often concerned about what children are facing at school. The kind of religious profiling that children are facing demands an urgent action. Much to Erum’s dismay, schools did not seem to be doing much about it. Only a few schools were documented as having taken steps to undertake counselling sessions and workshops to build interfaith dialogue and solidarity.
Nazia Erum
2017
Juggernaut
pp. 220
The book is a non fictional account of the lives of urban Indian Mulsims. The book presents anecdotes from the lives of young children and their parents from various cities, with a predominance of NCR based incidents. The author shares her concerns and feelings over raising a daughter in an environment that is increasingly biased against Muslims. She documents stories of discrimination in various schools in India. Parents are often concerned about what children are facing at school. The kind of religious profiling that children are facing demands an urgent action. Much to Erum’s dismay, schools did not seem to be doing much about it. Only a few schools were documented as having taken steps to undertake counselling sessions and workshops to build interfaith dialogue and solidarity.
Her concerns and those of other Muslim parents are genuine. Yet, a word of caution. The book is a collection of experiences. It is not a research document. There is no attempt at theorisation and the statements are generalised. Then again, the author has made no claim for it to be an academic book.
I am a little concerned with the title of the book. I am a little afraid that it will end up being read only by elite Muslim mothers. Whereas it needs to be read by parents and teachers as well. It is about time we took responsibility for what kind of a world are we creating for the next generation. This book is a step in the direction of building a society that is more accepting of the ‘other’.