Effect of Urdu Magazines in Socialization of Muslim Women

Urdu Magazines are the powerful means of bringing about social changes, these magazines help to accelerate the position of Muslim Women during few decades. Maulavi Mohmmed Baqir founded the first Urdu language newspaper-cum-magazine in 1836 named as Delhi Urdu Akhbar. Since then Urdu print culture took speed among the print media platforms by exhausting postal facility. As Urdu is one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India as well as a recognized language of some states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir and the National Capital Territory, Delhi. These Urdu magazines liked in the most of the homes of these states and bought and read regularly on large scale. As per census 2011 Muslim Women have the lowest literacy rates of 51.9% among all religious communities living in India. This increased rate of literacy from earlier decades is also due to the contribution of these magazine culture spread and communicated during few decades rapidly. Women became aware and they took oath for the next generation schooling. Urdu Magazines had opened many challenges & creative door for the Muslim women. Magazines are the mirror of the society as it provide information regarding the events of the daily life through written words. These Urdu magazines for Women in Urdu, debating & discussing a range of Socio-Political, Cultural, & educational issues of women. In the time of daily serials & less habits of reading, a sub-culture of Urdu periodicals exists in Muslim households in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Hyderabad, West Bengal, Maharashtra, & Odisha. This Study attempted to know how Magazines play an important role in socialisation and educational upliftment by providing views about present or past situation of the Muslim women. Enhancement of Muslim Women’s educational and social status is very important in shaping nation’s future, as education produces better citizen in better manner for better nation building as also the contributor of higher GDP. Therefore India’s New Education Policy 2020 grabbed the profound inevitability of the women education and hence for the very first time, ECCE is well thought and put forward a comprehensive layout of preparatory and foundational stages. This article highlights at the significance as well as effect of Urdu magazines in socialization of Muslim women.


INTRODUCTION
In India, just like other communities or societies, Muslim society is also patriarchal in nature.Males dominate in the position of authority; they enjoy power in every sphere of society.Here exist some stereotypes which depict females in a negative way and draw the conclusion that men are more important and influential than women.(White, 1978).There are traditions which consider males as the head of the family and females as simple housewives.Women are confined to a few aspects of society, such as caring and nurturing centered jobs.(Hassan, 1991).Islamic law treats both men and women as equals but unfortunately the religious leaders are misinterpreting the Islamic law giving the men power over the women.Despite the claim that Quran bestows equal status and rights on both men and women, we find that the reality is different.In Muslim society, the Muslim women mostly have lower status than their men and do not enjoy equal rights both in the family and outside.There is an assumption in Muslim society that education is not important for girls and that it may instill a wrong set of values.Even if girls are enrolled, they are withdrawn at an early age to marry them off.This leads to a high drop-out rate among Muslim girls (Hasan & Menon, 2004).In India, after seven decades of independence, Muslim women are one of the most disadvantaged, least literate, economically impoverished and politically marginalized sections of Indian society.Muslim women are being treated as secondary members in the Muslim community because of distorted and misinterpretation of Muslim law by its own religious leaders (Mahmood, 2006).Due to lack of proper knowledge of Muslim Law as well as wrong practices largely deviating from the true Islamic teachings wrong notions exist about Muslim women.There are some more factors which hinders the progress of Muslim women in India are illiteracy, ignorance, male domination and traditional beliefs.The non-availability of schools within easy reach for girls at lower levels of education, absence of girl's hostels, absence of female teachers are the main reasons behind their educational backwardness (Sachar, 2006).But in spite of the several drawbacks and restraints; the position of Muslim women is changing for the better in the country which can be seen in news and through their representation in Urdu magazines (Sheik, 1997).

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Urdu Magazines Urdu magazines hold an important place in Muslim households in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Hyderabad, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Odisha.Some popular magazines are Khatoon-e-Mashrik, Pakeeza Aanchal, Bano, Mashriqi Dulhan and Mashriqi Anchal.Women read these magazines with great interest.At a very low price, through these magazines readers get tips on fashion, cookery, embroidery and hairstyles, and short stories, poems and novels (Raza, 2016).Just like these two magazines, Anisa is also a famous women's Urdu magazine, editor of this magazine is Begum Sughra Humayun Mirza.This magazine consists of childcare, recipes, discipline, travelogues, novels, poetry, biographies along with reformist & educational information mainly for women.It's content about good & bad things, pride & self-respect, patience, courage in women.Main agenda of this magazine is women's education (Bindu,Viqar & Pandey, 2007).According to Gail Minault (1999), these magazines express the everyday reality which is hard to duplicate in other literary forms.The content of these magazines is designed to create the idea of a perfect housewife.These magazines help people to understand the minds of Muslim women but at the same time, it also compels people to think about understating and popular notions about Muslim women, their thinking, choices, dreams and contributions to the society.This medium of entertainment targets middle-class Urdu-fluent women.In these magazines domesticity is portrayed as an essential stage in women's life.It seems that the urban middle-class women are struggling between ideals of traditional Islamic morality and honour, and their desire to be educated, independent and in control of their own lives.(Siddiqui, 2012).The Urdu women's magazines address these urban middle-class women and portray the social problems relevant to their daily lives.In these magazines marriage is a central theme that weaves together segments of romance, morality, traditional values, messages of compromise and tolerance.They present marriage as a compulsory stage of each and every woman's life.These magazines promote popular stereotypes and expectations about marriage, divorce, women's education and economic independency.The main reasons of reading these magazines are to pass time and enjoy themselves while leading rather which is considered to have meaningful content and, often published months in advance, hardly discuss contemporary issues and debates about questions relating to gender (Raza, 2016).Pakeeza Anchal is one of the most famous women's magazines in Urdu, published from Delhi.Khalid Siddiqui, brother of journalist & former Rajya Sabha MP Shahid Siddiqui, started the magazine in 1986.Siddiqui edits the magazine with his wife Ghazala Siddiqui.A major chunk of the magazine consists of short stories, poems & articles on cookery, fashion, nutrition & parenting.Fareed Farooqui, editor of Khatoon-e-Mashrik magazine, magazine consists of short stories about women, articles on cookery, fashion, jokes etc. Khatoon-e-Mashrik's office is in Matia mahal of old Delhi.In 2013, fareed's wife shabana joined him after he had to let his team of eight go due to budget constraints.According to Farooqui, every time he thinks of shutting the magazine down, its legacy makes him change his mind.These two magazines are very popular among Muslim women in Delhi (Raza, 2016), in this research we will use these two magazines for analysis.

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Rationale of the study We find that the position of Muslim women is changing.This can be seen through their representation in magazines.Magazines play very important role in giving views about present or past condition of the Muslim women.In this study, I want to analyze the role of Urdu magazines how they present the status of Muslim women.How have they changed with the times?What messages they are giving to our society?Do they contain some other benefits for our Muslim society or women, what type of changes developed in these two magazines?These two magazines are Pakeezah Aanchal and Khatoon-e-mashrik, these magazines are in Urdu language.This research will involve regular readers of the digests and a content analysis of two Urdu magazines: Pakeeza Anchal and Khatoon-e-Mashrik.This study will combine text and reader's perspectives in the investigation about how status and perspective about Muslim women and society is expressed in the text of these magazines and how much readers get influenced by these magazines.According to Ferguson (1983); Gough-Yates (2003); Keller (2010); & Winship (1987), there has been a long-term research tradition on western women's magazines.The Urdu women's magazines address these urban middle-class women and portray the social problems relevant to their daily lives (Siddiqui, 2012).The findings of this research may challenge the established views on the essential influence of media on readers.This study will attempt to provide evidence if reading of Urdu magazines has any influence on readers.This study will also try to give clear picture of Muslim women's social representation with the help of these magazines and it will also try to explore changes with time in these two Urdu magazines.

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Methodology Content analysis is a research method which is used to determine the presence of certain concepts or words present within texts or sets of texts.Through this tool, researchers quantify and analyze the presence, meanings and relationships of words and concepts, then on the basis of which, they make inferences about the messages within the texts.In this study, two types of content analysis is used conceptual analysis and relational analysis.

Sample:
The study involves 10 issues (period 2010-2020) of Urdu magazines Pakeezah Aanchal, and 05 Muslim women who read Urdu magazine (Pakeezah Aanchal), residing in Delhi.Data collection: In the present study, both primary and secondary sources of data used for relevant information.Primary data collected directly from the field (Muslim women) by using semi-structured interview.
Interview schedule used for collecting information from the participants of the study (Muslim women).Units of magazines will be used as secondary sources for the study.Data Analysis: Data of this study analyzed through content analysis.Content analysis is a research tool which is used to determine the presence of certain concepts or words present within texts or sets of texts.

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Effect of Urdu Magazines on Women Magazines has the advantage of making a longer impact on the minds of reader, with more in depth reporting an analyses.These Magazines help us to understand the minds of Muslim Women, It also compels us to think, rethink, & question our understanding & popular notion about Muslim Women, their thinking, Choices, dreams, & Contributions.In the time of daily serials & less habits of reading, a subculture of Urdu periodicals exists in Muslim households in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Hyderabad, West Bengal, Maharashtra, & Odisha.Generation has grown up reading magazines such as Khatoon Mashriq, Pakiza Anchal, Bano, Mashriqi Dulhan, & Mashriqi Anchal delivered by Postman or brought from neighbourhood Markets.Most of the respondents proclaim that both the magazines serving as an Urdu promontory among the society.The Pakeeza Aanchal magazine is found more contemporary, social and modernity soothing in real life.These magazines represented the contemporary role of women in society through its content in stories, poems, afsanas, ghazals etc.The status of women was portrayed well as well as life stories of the prominent ladies were highlighted by the specific issues time to time.The domestic topics were touching the lives, emotions and the intellect in order to create an intense effect on the readers.The recipes columns were set the trends of innovations in the kitchens for the joviality, technology as well as modernization.The Khatoone Mashriq is an Islamic Magazine which purifying the heart, mind and soul and promoting righteousness.The formal educational information for the young girls and older women were also found in both the magazines.These magazines proved as a marvelous freighter and played pivotal role in informal-education, language development and literacy.The readers of these magazines impacted a lot.For instance curiosity of the stories parts or seasons showed the interest and how much they are connected to.The life styles of women also impacted to the great extent as what they read, was consciously and unconsciously modelled in their behaviors.The general awareness advanced the thinking of the readers in all endeavors of life such as their rights, freedom, liberty etc.

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Conclusion Urdu Magazines are the powerful means of bringing about social changes, these magazines help to accelerate the position of Muslim Women during few decades.Urdu Magazines examine & talk about Women's problems & create debate based on particular issues.These Urdu magazines for Women in Urdu, debating & discussing a range of Socio-Political, Cultural, & educational issues of women.Magazines had opened many challenges & creative door for the women.Magazines provide information regarding the events of the daily life through written words.Magazines are the mirror of the society.These magazines proved as a marvelous freighter and played pivotal role in informal-education, language development and literacy.These inculcated a sense of compensation among readers, they improved their