63-Year-Old Grandmother Enrols in School to study alongside her Grandchildren

Furera Muhammad, a 63-year-old grandmother from Kano State, has made headlines after enrolling in an Islamic school to study alongside her grandchildren. She is one of 40 grandmothers who attended a community engagement event organized by the Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) in partnership with the Ford Foundation, as part of the Grannies Network for Change (G-NEC project) in Rigafada.

Furera Muhammad was denied a formal education as a girl, a common experience for many women in northern Nigeria. For decades, she carried what she described as a quiet grief over the schooling she never received. "This kind of treatment is unfair," she said, echoing the sentiments of many women who were denied the opportunity to attend school.

Now, at the age of 63, Furera has decided to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher. She enrolled in the Islamic school in Rigafada, where she studies alongside several of her own grandchildren. "I wish I had gone to school when I was young, not now with my grandchildren," Furera said, acknowledging the bittersweet nature of her journey. She added that, given the opportunity earlier in life, she believed she would have become a teacher.

Furera's story is not hers alone. She is part of a larger movement to promote girls' access to education and reduce gender-based violence. The G-NEC project, which she is a part of, aims to leverage the social standing of grandmothers to improve outcomes for girls. The project is currently active in selected communities across Kano and Jigawa states, working to shift cultural norms and open wider conversations about the value of educating girls.

For Furera Muhammad, the classroom is no longer a place she associates with a missed past. It has become the future she is only now beginning to build. Her courage is an inspiration to many, and she hopes that her story will encourage fathers to reconsider how they approach the schooling of their girls, and encourage those already in school to persist. As Furera continues her studies, she is building a future that she had once thought was lost forever.