Description

INTRODUCTION

India being a diverse country in terms of ethnicity, religion and culture, has

Muslims as its largest minority group. Muslim women form a significant part of the

Islamic society in India. However, Muslim women are far more backward than the

other women in India. Except Muslims, all the rest of the major religions have

literacy rates higher than the national average. Muslims have a total literacy rate of

59.1 percent, below the national average of 64.8 percent, amongst which the male

literacy rate (67.6 %) is below the national average of 75.3 percent and the female

literacy rate (50.1%) is below the national average of 53.7 percent (Census of India,

2011).

Muslim women remain largely backward and deprived. They continue to be

uneducated, resourceless and victimized despite the informative attitude of Islamic

movement (Chaturvedi, 2003). Muslim women are changing gradually, but the change

is painfully slow. At the all India level Muslim women are three times behind their

Hindu sisters. The attainment of higher education among Muslim girls is a rare

phenomenon even in the urban areas (Shazli & Asma, 2015). Muslim adolescent

girls need to realize and enjoy their full human rights and start a process of reform

within the community and empowerment through affirmative action programmes for

greater access to educational, economic and political institutions and opportunities

(Munjial & Kaushik, 2013). One important social skill needed by these young girls

to overcome these challenges is assertiveness. Assertiveness is a social skill that can

greatly help a woman to achieve self empowerment.

Assertiveness is defined as the practice of behaviour which enables

individuals to act in their best interest or stand up for themselves without undue

anxiety, or to express their rights without denying the rights of others (Alberti &

Emmons, 1970; Wolpe, 1969). Most definitions of assertiveness emphasize direct

expression of feelings, desires and thoughts in interpersonal contexts. Definitions of

assertive behaviour put an emphasis on individual rights (Eskin, 2003),