Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 219
! ! 219 in girls , and w hich are not allowed in Islam , or they will become spiritless and the passion for life will be extinguished. Therefore, it is necessary to arrange female teachers for our girls. Those women, for whom education has been separately arranged are in fact teachers , not simply students. Most of them ar e married and a few are unmarried; the majority of them are also already educated. Only a few are less knowledgeable. We expect those from am ong them who stay at home, to gi ve their time to teach the se girls at school , so that they advance in their educa tion. Strangely, it appears that in this world the foundation for everything is extensive, but when it comes to knowledge, the foundation is small , and continues to grow as one progresses. A student becomes more k nowledgeable than his teacher be cause the student inherits knowledge and experience from the teacher. Hence, we can say , that although these women are not fully accomplished teachers, those who learn from them will advance beyond them. T he next generation to learn from the m, will advance even further. This is what occurred in Europe, and this can also occur here. We could educate them by keeping male teachers in schools , but we cannot achieve the kind of success we hope for, unless we have men to train female teachers. They w ill i n turn teach the girls and [also] play and laugh with them. Successful t raining can only be accomplished when the teacher and student can play together , and t his is not possible with men. Indeed , if these teachers are trained well, they can become the girls’ tutor s as well as their friend s. Girls will be abl e to talk openly with them and absorb the shades of their character so that they develop a rich personality of their own. We hope that with the Grace of God Almighty, these teachers ready themselves to complete the educ ational process of our Jama'at. C ompared to others , we have more responsibilities given to us. Other people either prefer illiteracy in that they do not wish to educate their women, or they try to imitate the Europeans. We do not like illiteracy because the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa has said, “ W isdom is the lost property of believers, and sho uld be acquired wherever found. ” On the other hand , we cannot follow Europe. T herefore, we must find a new way. I say ‘ new ’ because at this time, it is not