The old man holds Syed Mohsin's hand in both of his, bends low, and touches it to his forehead. Assalamu alaikum, he greets, then backs away. Mohsin is met with similar gestures of respect everywhere in his hometown of Shergar, in Punjab province. The bejewelled and calligraphy-adorned family tomb in which he is standing dates back to the founding of the town, by his ancestors, during the 16th century. Mohsin takes great pride in his ancestral home. And so, he explains, having been successful in running a food-production business, he wanted to give back to the community that nurtured him.
Anjuman Khuddam-e-Rasool Allah (Association in the Service of the Prophet of God), or AKRA, is the fruit of this desire. Set up in 1976 as a small social-welfare organisation, the NGO now runs 31 village schools in Shergar and the surrounding districts, as well as one boys' and one girls' secondary school, a central primary school and a teacher-training college. These schools serve almost 4000 students, both literate and illiterate, focusing especially on the education of girls and women. Every student passing through the teacher-training college is a local girl, and most will return to teach in the AKRA schools in their home villages.
At one such school in a dusty village not far from Shergar, rows of teenage girls in identical white robes and mauve hijabs sit on the ground in the schoolyard, working on their lessons. This particular school has two classrooms, both of which are currently occupied by the youngest children, aged four to nine, who sit on the floor around low tables. This school is one of the largest that AKRA oversees, with 172 pupils – all working quietly in an enclosed compound about the size of a tennis court. The rows in the yard do not shift as the stifling sun creeps over the bent mauve heads.
In the nursery classroom, boys and girls sit on different sides of the room. This is not formal segregation, but rather the children's own choice based on social norms and personal friendships. The villagers have no objections to mixed classes at the primary level, though Mohsin is unsure whether this is due to the liberalisation that has taken place over the past thirty years, or because of the respect he commands as the main local landowner and a Syed – a man believed to be a direct descendent of the Prophet Mohammed. Covering one wall of the nursery classroom is a huge banner displaying a large rainbow and a picture for each letter of the English alphabet. While the lessons are in Urdu, English is also taught here. In the main school in Shergar, two class groups are taught completely in English, an experiment that began two years ago. The English classes are costly, though even AKRA's Urdu-medium classes are more expensive than government schools.