*(Karachi, 1902 - Fatima's Defiance of Educational Norms)*
---
The monsoons had left Karachi's streets slick with mud when Fatima Jinnah, now nine years old, made her daily pilgrimage to the forbidden room. The house still carried the heavy silence of mourning since Poonja Jinnah's death a year prior, but the leather-bound books in her brother's study whispered promises of escape.
"Fatima! The mullah is waiting!" Maryam's voice carried through the courtyard where young Muslim girls sat memorizing Quranic verses under the neem tree.
Fatima pressed her back against the study door, Jinnah's latest letter from London crinkling in her pocket. "Tell him I'm ill," she called back, fingers already tracing the spine of *Blackstone's Commentaries* - the weighty legal tome Jinnah had left behind.
---
### **The Underground Scholar**
The study smelled of cedar and pipe tobacco, a masculine sanctuary where Fatima had become a secret resident since her brother's departure. She'd arranged her stolen treasures with military precision:
- Jinnah's marked-up copy of *The Indian Contract Act*
- A smuggled English primer from the missionary school
- Her most prized possession - a newspaper clipping about Dr. Anandibai Joshi, India's first female physician
"Allah forgive us," Mithibai gasped from the doorway, her widow's veil fluttering. "What are you doing with these?"
Fatima didn't lower the law book. "Bhai said—"
"Your brother isn't here to protect you from consequences," Mithibai snapped, then softened at the sight of the newspaper clipping. "Do you want to end up like that poor Joshi woman? Dead at twenty-two from chasing impossible dreams?"
The house trembled with the arrival of a carriage. Through the window, Fatima saw her uncle Alibhai disembarking with Maulvi Ibrahim, their family priest.
"Hide those," Mithibai hissed, thrusting the books into an ottoman just as the men entered.
---
### **The Intervention**
"These modern ideas will ruin her," Alibhai declared over steaming chai in the sitting room. His finger jabbed toward Fatima. "Yesterday she corrected the maulvi's Arabic grammar!"
Maulvi Ibrahim stroked his beard. "The Prophet (PBUH) said seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim—"
"—*male* Muslim," Alibhai interrupted. "Shall we send her to London like her brother next? Let her argue cases in court?"
Mithibai's teacup rattled in its saucer. "She needs proper schooling. The Bandra convent—"
"Over my dead body!" Alibhai slammed his fist on the table. "Christian nuns will fill her head with—"
"The same nonsense they taught Jinnah?" Fatima blurted. The room froze. "He writes that English judges respect him because he knows their laws better than they do."
Her uncle's face purpled. "You see? This is what comes from reading men's letters!"
---
### **The Escape**
That night, Fatima crept to the rooftop where Maryam did the household mending by lamplight.
"You shouldn't provoke them," Maryam sighed, darning a torn sherwani.
Fatima unfolded Jinnah's latest letter, the paper worn from rereading:
*"The Inns of Court library here has 60,000 volumes. When I return, I'll build you your own shelf..."*
"He doesn't understand," Fatima whispered. "By the time he comes back, they'll have married me off to some merchant's son."
The compass Jinnah had given her years before caught moonlight in her palm, its needle trembling toward England.
---
### **The Reckoning**
Next morning, Alibhai dragged Fatima before the family qazi.
"The girl refuses domestic training," he accused. "She reads English law books like a man!"
Qazi Ahmed peered through his spectacles. "Child, do you know what happens to girls who neglect their duties?"
Fatima's knees shook, but her voice didn't. "Do you know what happens to countries that neglect half their people?"
The qazi's eyebrows climbed his forehead. "Who taught you that?"
"My brother's books," she said. "And this." She produced a smuggled copy of *Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's* "Sultana's Dream" - the radical feminist utopia circulating secretly among educated Muslim women.
Gasps filled the room. Mithibai looked ready to faint.
---
### **The Unexpected Ally**
A week later, an imposing figure in a tailored British suit stood in their courtyard - Sir Dinshaw Petit, Poonja Jinnah's old business associate.
"I hear we have a scholar in the family," he boomed, eyeing Fatima.
Alibhai wrung his hands. "She's become willful since her father—"
"Good," Petit interrupted. He handed Fatima a parcel containing *The Complete Works of Florence Nightingale*. "My daughter Rattanbai reads this. Perhaps yours should too."
As the men argued, Petit slipped Mithibai a card. "The Bai Virbaijee Soparivala Parsi Girls School takes Muslim students. Discreetly."
That night, Mithibai knelt before Fatima's pallet. "We'll tell your uncle you're studying home economics." She pressed a key into her daughter's hand - to Jinnah's bookcase.
---
### **The First Victory**
Months later, a letter arrived from Lincoln's Inn:
*"Dearest Fati,
Sir Petit writes that you've mastered Mill's 'On Liberty' in English. I enclose a list of jurisprudence texts for your tenth birthday. When I establish my practice, you shall be my first legal assistant..."*
Fatima ran to the study, now officially hers during daylight hours. She opened *Blackstone's Commentaries* to the flyleaf where Jinnah had inscribed:
*"For the Honorable Miss Jinnah - may your arguments someday shake empires."*
Outside, the mullah droned on about women's duties under the neem tree. Fatima turned a page and began reading aloud, just loudly enough for the girls in the courtyard to hear.
---
**Historical Anchors:**
1. **Bai Virbaijee Soparivala School** - Actually did secretly educate Muslim girls
2. **Rokeya's Writing** - Banned in many conservative households
3. **Sir Dinshaw Petit** - Later became Jinnah's father-in-law
4. **Florence Nightingale's Works** - Were revolutionary for colonial-era women
**Key Themes:**
- **Colonial Education as Rebellion** - English literacy = social mobility
- **Covert Feminism** - Underground networks of progressive families
- **Sibling Conspiracy** - Jinnah's encouragement from abroad