Jumana recently graduated cum laude with a master’s degree in Embedded Systems. This month, she’ll begin working for microprocessor development company ARM in Cambridge, UK. But the road to this first major career step hasn’t been easy for her. To achieve her goals, she’s spent the majority of her youth defying the many cultural and economic restraints placed upon her by her society and, at times, her own family.

Marriage, babies and little schooling

What does it mean to be a Muslim Indian girl? For most, their lives will follow a prescribed order - little schooling followed by an early marriage and children. Working outside of the home is often not an option. Consider these statistics: 75 percent of Muslim women in India are illiterate and Muslim girls’ school enrollment rates tend to be low: 40.6 percent as compared to 63.2 percent in the case of upper caste Hindus. Less than 17 percent of Muslim girls finish eight years of schooling and less than 10 percent complete higher secondary education. On average, Muslim girls study a dismal 2.7 years, as compared to 3.8 years for Hindu girls.

Mom’s tough love

Early in her education, Jumana’s intelligence and dedication to her studies set her apart from her classmates. While her family appreciated her successes, they were also conflicted by the idea that Jumana’s ambition set her apart from societal norms. “I was born into a conservative Muslim family. I had a lot of issues with my own family. I observed that women are just at home. The other women in my family punished my mother because she worked and earned money.”

Like most Indian families, Jumana’s father was the official head of her family but it was her mother who really ran things. And Jumana and her mother clashed constantly. “When you’re 12, you can’t do sports anymore. I used to hate it because I was really good at this sort of stuff. My mom and I would fight because she didn’t want me to play outside. She’s scared of the society even though inside she doesn’t care.” Jumana’s mother, a nurse, was a strict mother: “She made sure to give me a lot of work to do. I used to hate it. I never had toys. I used to almost consider my mother my enemy.”

When Jumana left to continue her education at boarding school, she says she realized she’d mistaken her mother’s intentions. The memory makes her eyes fill with tears: “I feel guilty because when I left home I didn’t even want to say goodbye. My mom knew I was happy when I was leaving, that I was getting rid of her. Then she wrote me a letter. I did all of this for you to be good so you wouldn’t mess up your life.”

Forty hours away

After schooling in her small hometown, Jumana was determined to get more education in a bigger place. “I knew if I didn’t get educated the next thing for me was marriage.” She applied to a boarding school 40 hours away from her hometown and was accepted with a full scholarship, “I became very empowered by this - traveling by train can be very dangerous in India. Once I left my home, I stopped wearing my head covering.”

But Jumana says it was clear from the start that things weren’t going to be easy for her: “It became very difficult to understand the lectures because I couldn’t follow the teachers’ accents. I used to go to the bathroom to study more even though the lights went out at 11pm.” In order to succeed, she took an enormous risk. “I asked for special permission to take 10 days to study on my own. They told me if I didn’t achieve, I’d have to pay back all of my fees.” Once again, hard work and determination paid off. Jumana scored a 92 percent on her final exams and that achievement assured her a spot at a top technical university.

University, TU/e and beyond

Though Jumana could’ve attended a university close to her hometown, she purposely chose one far away. Her parents made it clear that from that point forward, she was on her own. “Of course they were proud of me but when my dad dropped me at university he told me ‘we will not tell you what to do anymore. From now on, it’s all you.’”

Jumana focused on robotics at university and worked an internship during every school break to build up her CV. Again at the top of her class, a friend encouraged her to go even further - a master’s degree abroad. Initially, her mother supported her dreams but a family member interfered. “I convinced my mom and she gave me 500 euros so I could pay the admission fees for the top universities. Then a few weeks later she told her brother what I was doing. He’s the most educated person in our family and he said ‘What are you doing sending her abroad?! Boys and girls sleep together in those countries!’ Then my mother said, ‘I won’t give you a single rupee.’”

Undeterred by her mother’s worries, Jumana called the uncle’s son in Europe to ask for help. “He’s rich and he knew it was even safer for me to study abroad than at home. But he wouldn’t help me either. He said, ‘Let me know when you get a scholarship. Then we’ll talk.’” Because no family member would give Jumana money, she turned to her friends for help. She borrowed 50 euros from each and swore to pay them back within three months. “I found a job tutoring a girl for €30 a month. I’d go there every evening to teach her. People at my university used to think I was an awkward person because I didn’t join in the parties.”

Jumana admits she felt guilty pursuing her dream of studying abroad without her parent’s consent. In the end, however, her efforts paid off, “Then comes the glory of the story. I got a full scholarship at TU/e and everywhere else I applied except one. The admissions started coming to my home and my parents’ told them that this was a big deal. They said: ‘This the first time we’ve ever seen scholarships from all over the place.’ And then my mom cried.” A 5000 euros Tata scholarship soon followed, paying for her flights and other living expenses and removing the final obstacles to Jumana’s new life in Europe.

Lessons learnt

And have her years at TU/e taught her anything beyond her studies? Jumana says living abroad has given her perspective on both her faith and her family. “If you travel a lot in your life, you don’t become so narrow. It’s widely-accepted in my faith that girls need to be covered. But I also think God is merciful and you can ask for His forgiveness. I don’t think God is too worried if Jumana is wearing this sort of dress. And I think I’m still my mom’s girl who practices everything she taught even though on the outside I’m not. I do realize now that she sacrificed a lot.”

Like many intelligent, strong women, Jumana is quick to offer advice for how other girls can achieve their own life goals, “Always remember that nothing comes for free. If you see someone achieving, then they’re working very hard for it. Just compete with yourself and not with others. There are many things I didn’t know how to do but I just tried to be better today than what I was yesterday. Don’t fall for the limitations that society puts on a girl.”