On her 191st birthday, Google doodle honours social reformer and feminist icon Fatima Sheikh 

Team Udayavani, Jan 9, 2022, 2:37 PM IST

On the 191st anniversary of her birth, Google paid tribute to Indian educator, feminist icon, and social reformer Fatima Sheikh.

Fatima Sheikh, the first Muslim woman teacher in India, was born on this day in 1831 in Pune.

Along with fellow pioneers and social reformers Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule, she co-founded the Indigenous Library, one of India’s first schools for girls, in 1848.

After the couple was evicted for attempting to teach individuals from lower castes, Sheikh and her brother, Usman, opened their home to the Phules.

Sheikh began instructing Dalit youngsters, and the three of them were tasked with spreading education to the underprivileged.

They educated Dalit and Muslim women and children who had been denied an education because to their gender, class, or religion.

Sheikh used to travel door-to-door in her village, inviting the poor and oppressed to learn at the Indigenous Library and break free from the rigidity of the Indian caste system.