Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relatives, and had also worried that other American children would mock both her Muslim religion and her traditional clothes.<\/p>\n
. . .<\/p>\n
Across the United States, Muslims who find that a public school education clashes with their religious or cultural traditions have turned to home schooling. That choice is intended partly as a way to build a solid Muslim identity away from the prejudices that their children, boys and girls alike, can face in schoolyards. But in some cases, as in Ms. Bibi\u2019s, the intent is also to isolate their adolescent and teenage daughters from the corrupting influences that they see in much of American life.<\/p>\n
. . .<\/p>\n
\n
In some cases, home-schooling is used primarily as a way to isolate girls like Miss Bibi, the Pakistani-American here in Lodi.<\/p>\n
Some 80 percent of the city\u2019s 2,500 Muslims are Pakistani, and many are interrelated villagers who try to recreate the conservative social atmosphere back home. A decade ago many girls were simply shipped back to their villages once they reached adolescence.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir families want them to retain their culture and not become Americanized,\u201d said Roberta Wall, the principal of the district-run Independent School, which supervises home schooling in Lodi and where home-schooled students attend weekly hourlong tutorials.<\/p>\n
Of more than 90 Pakistani or other South Asian girls of high school age who are enrolled in the Lodi district, 38 are being home-schooled. By contrast, just 7 of the 107 boys are being home-schooled, and usually the reason is that they were falling behind academically.<\/strong><\/p>\nAs soon as they finish their schooling, the girls are married off, often to cousins brought in from their families\u2019 old villages.<\/p>\n
The parents \u201cwant their girls safe at home and away from evil things like boys, drinking and drugs,\u201d said Kristine Leach, a veteran teacher with the Independent School.<\/p>\n
The girls follow the regular high school curriculum, squeezing in study time among housework, cooking, praying and reading the Koran. The teachers at the weekly tutorials occasionally crack jokes of the \u201cwhat, are your brothers\u2019 arms broken?\u201d variety, but in general they tread lightly, sensing that their students obey family and tradition because they have no alternative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This article is from 2008, so I\u2019m a bit late coming upon it, and I don\u2019t know how things may have changed since. But\u00a0what I find fascinating is how similar some of this rhetoric sounds to what\u00a0I heard growing up. Some of it is different, such as the concern about being mocked for Muslim clothing and customs. But some of it\u2014like keeping children away from drinking and drugs, wanting to ensure that the children retain\u00a0their parents\u2019 culture and beliefs, and squeezing studying in amongst a heavy load of chores\u2014sounds very familiar.<\/p>\n
Of course, a big\u00a0difference here is that the girls are being homeschooled, but not the boys. In\u00a0the\u00a0conservative evangelical and fundamentalist homeschooling community I grew up in, both genders were seen as equally in need of protection from the temptations and influence of the world. The difference\u00a0was that girls were pushed toward homemaking while boys were pushed toward finding a way to earn a living to support a family. In some families, this meant that girls were not given the same education as their brothers, because what are girls going to do with algebra anyway? In other families, both boys and girls had deficient education, because it was building godly character and discovering who you were in Christ that was really important. In my own family, both genders\u00a0were educated well, but we girls were carefully taught not to entertain a thought of having a career outside of the home. Had we attended school or had influences in our lives outside of our close community, this might have been different.<\/p>\n
In some sense, these Muslim girls\u2019 teachers (they are homeschooled through the school district rather than independently) don\u2019t really have a lot of options. According to the article, these girls would have been sent back to their families\u2019 villages in Pakistan where (the article later says) they often would not have any access to education, so staying here in the U.S. and being homeschooled through the school district is a better education than they might otherwise have, even if their brothers are attending school\u00a0in person. I suppose in a sense being homeschooled through the school district is a sort of middle ground compromise\u2014the girls get an education, but without as many of the potentially subversive\u00a0influences.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth noting that not all Muslim homeschoolers homeschool to isolate their daughters. The article contains quotes from a variety of Muslim homeschooling parents talking about their efforts to involve their children in a variety of extracurriculars, their efforts to ensure that their children don\u2019t fall behind academically, and their interest in protecting their children from the bullying they received in public school. The impression the article leaves is that while some Muslims homeschool their daughters in an attempt to keep them from the corrupting influence\u00a0of the public school district, this is not the case for all (or likely even the majority) of Muslim homeschoolers.<\/p>\n
Homeschooling parents have more control over their children\u2019s education and over who their children\u00a0have contact with than do other parents. So I suppose it\u2019s not surprising that just as there are Christian parents who homeschool to keep their children from \u201cworldly\u201d influences and prepare them for futures delineated by religious ideas about gender\u00a0(i.e. the girls should be homemakers), there would be Muslims doing the same thing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Homeschooling parents have more control over their children’s education and over who their children have contact with than do other parents. So I suppose it’s not surprising that just as there are Christian parents who homeschool to keep their children from “worldly” influences and prepare them for futures delineated by religious ideas about gender (i.e. the girls should be homemakers), there would be Muslims doing the same thing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[135,445],"class_list":["post-23785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeschool","tag-gender","tag-islam"],"yoast_head":"\n
Gender-Based Discrimination in Muslim Homeschooling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Homeschooling parents have more control over their children's education and over who their children have contact with than do other parents. So I suppose it's not surprising that just as there are Christian parents who homeschool to keep their children from "worldly" influences and prepare them for futures delineated by religious ideas about gender (i.e. the girls should be homemakers), there would be Muslims doing the same thing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gender-Based Discrimination in Muslim Homeschooling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Homeschooling parents have more control over their children's education and over who their children have contact with than do other parents. So I suppose it's not surprising that just as there are Christian parents who homeschool to keep their children from "worldly" influences and prepare them for futures delineated by religious ideas about gender (i.e. the girls should be homemakers), there would be Muslims doing the same thing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-18T12:45:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html\",\"name\":\"Gender-Based Discrimination in Muslim Homeschooling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-18T12:45:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-18T12:45:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Homeschooling parents have more control over their children's education and over who their children have contact with than do other parents. So I suppose it's not surprising that just as there are Christian parents who homeschool to keep their children from \\\"worldly\\\" influences and prepare them for futures delineated by religious ideas about gender (i.e. the girls should be homemakers), there would be Muslims doing the same thing.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gender-Based Discrimination in Muslim Homeschooling\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \\\"purity culture,\\\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gender-Based Discrimination in Muslim Homeschooling","description":"Homeschooling parents have more control over their children's education and over who their children have contact with than do other parents. So I suppose it's not surprising that just as there are Christian parents who homeschool to keep their children from \"worldly\" influences and prepare them for futures delineated by religious ideas about gender (i.e. the girls should be homemakers), there would be Muslims doing the same thing.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Gender-Based Discrimination in Muslim Homeschooling","og_description":"Homeschooling parents have more control over their children's education and over who their children have contact with than do other parents. So I suppose it's not surprising that just as there are Christian parents who homeschool to keep their children from \"worldly\" influences and prepare them for futures delineated by religious ideas about gender (i.e. the girls should be homemakers), there would be Muslims doing the same thing.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2014-11-18T12:45:35+00:00","author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html","name":"Gender-Based Discrimination in Muslim Homeschooling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-11-18T12:45:35+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-18T12:45:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"Homeschooling parents have more control over their children's education and over who their children have contact with than do other parents. So I suppose it's not surprising that just as there are Christian parents who homeschool to keep their children from \"worldly\" influences and prepare them for futures delineated by religious ideas about gender (i.e. the girls should be homemakers), there would be Muslims doing the same thing.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/11\/gender-based-discrimination-in-muslim-homeschooling.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gender-Based Discrimination in Muslim Homeschooling"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/","name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2","name":"Libby Anne","description":"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \"purity culture,\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}