Women’s College has started a lecture series in the name of its own founder. The first Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Lecture, delivered by historian Prof. Farhat Hasan (Retd.) of the University of Delhi, asked a pointed question: whose interests did nineteenth-century women’s education really serve?
The talk was titled “Talking with and Back to the Patriarchy: Sheikh Abdullah and the Women’s College”. The AMU Public Relations Office announced the series on 29 October 2026.
What Prof. Farhat Hasan argued
Prof. Hasan looked at the social and educational conditions of colonial India in the 1800s. Much of the early push for educating women, he said, was meant to preserve and improve the existing domestic order rather than to change it.
Also readAMUSU Election 2026 Final Candidate List: 10 in Race for President
- He discussed reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, and how educational initiatives could also strengthen the hold of the social elite.
- He said British rule tried to build its influence through education, not only through force.
- He spoke about how women’s education was seen at the time as a way to reorganise family life, including love, emotions and wider kinship ties.
- He also took up the link between nationhood, nationalism and patriarchal institutions in India.
Why the name matters
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and his wife Begum Waheed Jahan are remembered in Aligarh as the founders of the girls’ school that became today’s Women’s College. Principal Prof. Shagufta Imtiaz spoke about the couple’s work for women’s education while welcoming the speaker.
Prof. Roomana Siddiqui of Women’s College gave the concluding remarks on Sheikh Abdullah’s contribution. Faculty members and students then put questions to Prof. Hasan. Dr Fauzia Faridi conducted the programme and proposed the vote of thanks.
The college has had a busy October. Read about its Letters to Sir Syed and NSS quiz for Sir Syed Day, and our list of AMU alumnae and pioneers who made history.
Source: AMU Public Relations Office, 29 October 2026.
