Before she rose

She was erased from history for 150 years. The school she co-founded in her own home was recorded only under Savitribai's name.

Fatima Sheikh taught in the same classrooms, faced the same social hostility, and gave up her own home for the same cause. The historical record simply forgot her — until researchers began recovering her story in the 21st century.

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Fatima Sheikh

1831–1900 · Pune, Maharashtra, India

She opened her home as India's first school for girls — and history forgot her name for 150 years.

Education is the right of every human being, regardless of caste or religion.

— Attributed to Fatima Sheikh

In 1848, when Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule were thrown out of their home for running a school for girls, one woman opened her door. Fatima Sheikh — a Muslim woman in Pune — said: use my house. The first school for girls in India began in Fatima Sheikh's home. She taught there every day, alongside Savitribai. For 150 years, only one of their names was remembered.

Her story

Pune, 1848. The Phules have been told to leave their home. No one will give them space for a school for girls.

Fatima Sheikh steps forward. "Use my house," she says. The first school for girls in India begins in her home.

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Fatima Sheikh was one of the first Muslim women educators in India. She faced hostility from both Hindu and Muslim communities for running a school that taught girls of all castes and faiths.

The school taught girls who had never before been allowed to learn — lower-caste Hindu girls, Muslim girls, the daughters of people no one else was educating.

She walked with Savitribai Phule to school every day, facing the same hostility — the same taunts, the same community pressure.

She was not Savitribai's helper. She was her co-founder. She was doing this alongside her, every day, for years.

For over 150 years, Fatima Sheikh was not in the history books. Schools were named after Savitribai. Streets were named after Jyotirao. Her name was largely absent.

In 2022, the Indian government added her portrait to school textbooks. She had been waiting 174 years to be named.

What she taught us

◈Opening your door to someone who needs it is an act of history.
◈The work is real even when the recognition isn't.
◈Invisibility is not the same as absence. You were always there.

Education is the right of every human being, regardless of caste or religion.

— Fatima Sheikh, Attributed to Fatima Sheikh

Her story. Your life.

A question worth sitting with

Fatima Sheikh did transformative work that history failed to record for 150 years. What important work have you done that has not been seen or acknowledged — and does the absence of acknowledgement change its value?

Take sixty seconds. Just sit with it.

A letter from her — to you

Dear you, I want to tell you something about doing important work and not being seen for it. For 150 years after I opened my home, my name was absent from the histories. The school I helped found was credited to others. The hostility I faced, the students I taught, the door I opened — these things happened, and they mattered, and history chose not to record my name. I understand if you know something about this. The work you did that someone else took credit for. The idea that became someone else's. The years you gave to something that no one thanked you for. Here is what I want you to know: the work was real. The girls who learned in my house became women who taught their daughters, who taught theirs. That happened. My name being absent from the record did not make it not happen. You are not what gets written about you. You are what you do, and what it starts. History is slow and imperfect and often unjust. But it corrects itself — sometimes after 150 years, sometimes sooner. The truth tends to find its way back. Keep doing the work. It is real. With love, Fatima

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