Religion and Culture Related Causes of Educational Backwardness of Muslim Women in West Bengal

Muslim women that comprise about 12.16% of the state population and 48.24% to the total Muslim population in West Bengal can never be neglected. But, most of them remain educationally, socially, politically and culturally backward. The identified religion and culture related causes such as more importance on religious education of Muslim women than their general education, regular effective study of Quran or religious literature than to read news paper and women magazine, not getting service easily for Muslim women who wear burqa and hijab, not organizing educational festival like Hate Khari in the age of four years four months and four days for Muslim women, preference for entry into the Paradise for illiterate Muslims according to religious rituals, loving pure illiterate people and hating educated people by Allah, acquiring knowledge necessary for every Muslim male, but not essential for all Muslim females, greater importance on religious knowledge than secular knowledge to be a good Muslim woman, restriction for Muslim women to wear burqa or hijab to go outside the home or to educational institutions, rigid religious rituals of Muslim women played a major role for educational backwardness of Muslim women in West Bengal. A survey has been carried out to find out the opinions of Muslim women towards these religion and culture related causes of educational backwardness of Muslim women in West Bengal. The paper also presents the various ways for removing religion and culture related barriers for improvement of Muslim women education in West Bengal.