Muslim Girl's and Women's Movement (MGWM) of the Kerala Nadvatul Mujahidin states: "I have lost a lot of money to quacks. Now, I know the value of knowledge", (leads) a significant change in the Muslim society. The great strides are despite the enveloping purdah, the head-to-toe garment symbolic of conventionalism. And helping them overcome barriers are women's movements of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Mujahidin, two less conservative Muslim religious organisations in Kerala.
Another indication of the new, silent revolution is the growing popularity of the women's magazines brought out by the religious organisations including the majority Sunnis, who are more conservative and less inclined to women gaining social footage ...
"We aim at uplifting the Muslim woman through education, at the same time sticking to the Islamic tenets," says president of the Jamaat-e-Islami's women's movement for those above 25 ..
The movements organise awareness programmes ...A striking instance of the sweeping change was the state conference of the Jamaat-e-Islami at Kottackal in Malappuram, on April 19 and 20, 1998. The conference saw four women leaders sharing the podium ... That nearly one lakh Muslim women gathered under one roof -for the first time in the organisation's history – distributed the fundamentalist Muslim psyche ...
Denunciation, however, have not dampened the spirits of these women. Recently some of them joined hands with the volunteers of the Women's Action Council, a forum that highlighted the activities of sex rackets ... They have also been demonstrating against beauty pageants in towns like Kozhikode. ...
Ardently religious, they will not have any non-Muslim commenting on the Shariat rules ... The women's movements have begun to seep into the Muslim mind. Their vision of the purdah-clad progress may be far from the feminism of the non-religious movements. Yet they are playing an invaluable role in salvaging the Muslim woman from the depths of ignorance and subservient drudge. (Source: The Week, 28 June, 1998)