New Delhi: A Muslim Iranian woman traveled alone from Tehran to France? How did your government allow you to leave? Where did you get this passport? You can’t be Muslim. Are you Jewish? These are some of the welcoming reactions that Iranian feminist Siddique Dolakabadi received from a French immigration officer in 1923 as she traveled from Iran to France.
When it comes to Muslim women, they are often shaped by stereotypes of veiling and restriction. However, the book Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women disrupts this narrative in a groundbreaking way. At the India International Centre in New Delhi, Professor Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, cultural historian and professor of Global History at the University of Sheffield, UK, unveiled how Muslim women explore the world and how their observations provide a unique perspective on religious practices in different parts of the world, social customs, and political landscapes across different eras, from 17th to 20th centuries.
“These women shatter the stereotype of the cloistered Muslim woman, who’s often portrayed as hidden away in her home,” said Lambert-Hurley, reflecting on how the travelers featured in her edited work break the stereotypes of female seclusion often associated with Muslim societies. “Through these writings, we don’t just get their perspective on the outward journey; we also gain a wealth of descriptions, ideas, and discussions about the women they encounter and what they understand of their lives as well.”
Lambert-Hurley emphasised that what distinguishes women’s writing from men’s is the attention to detail, even in the smallest aspects. “While men, in their travel writing, would simply map out where they traveled, women were describing their everyday lives and the things around them with great simplicity and detail, making their writing come alive,” she said.
The professor gave an example from Begum Sarbuland Jang’s travel account, Duniya Aurat Ki Nazar Mein, where she recalls the chaos of trying to bathe in a hammam in Damascus. Jang was astonished to find that there were no hammams in homes, as in India, but instead, there were public ones in the town where many women bathed together. These simple experiences and their descriptions by women writers reveal the unfamiliar, highlighting cultural clashes and the complexity of connections made through travel.
The book features 45 chapters, each focusing on a woman traveler who wrote about her experiences. The chapters are organised thematically—pilgrimage, emancipation, politics, education, obligation and pleasure—each revealing different dimensions of these women’s travel motives and experiences.
Lambert-Hurley also talked about regional specificities that emerged from the project. “When we sought pilgrimage narratives, we found none from the Arab world or Southeast Asia before 1950. Meanwhile, all of our Arab and Turkish texts fell into the category of emancipation and politics. It also became clear that South Asia produced more travel writing than any other regions that we looked at,” she said.
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Exploring the world
The women mentioned in the book, who authored these travel writings, mostly came from privileged backgrounds, such as the ruling families of Bhopal or the royal family of Hyderabad. However, their reasons for traveling were different. For example, Sultan Jahan Begum, the ruler of Bhopal, traveled to Europe and undertook the Hajj pilgrimage in the early 20th century, while Begum Inam Habibullah traveled to Britain in the 1920s to visit her three sons at a boarding school. Nyonya Aulias Selim, from Indonesia, traveled with her doctor husband to American medical facilities in the early 1950s. These stories highlight the diverse reasons Muslim women have traveled—whether seeking personal freedom, fulfilling religious obligations, or exploring different cultures.
Additionally, South Asian Muslim women ventured across regions such as Arabia, the Levant, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and even Western countries like Britain, France, Germany, and the US, reflecting their broad and varied experiences throughout history.
There are examples available of women from more modest backgrounds as well. Dilshad, an author and teacher, was forcibly deported as a prisoner of war from what is now Tajikistan to the Khokhan Khanate in the early 19th century. She was an orphan, raised by her grandmother in poverty. She was married to an Imam who taught her to read and write. Through her writings, she recounts the extraordinary circumstances that led to her deportation and migration, providing glimpses into the struggles faced by women from less privileged backgrounds.
“Many historians have also collected data showing that a significant number of less elite Muslim women were traveling in the early 17th or 18th century,” said Lambert-Hurley.
The book also sheds light on the gendered nature of travel writing. While men often focused on grand narratives of exploration, many of the women chose to write in form of diary entries, autobiographies, letters, and even magazine articles—revealing a more nuanced and localised perspective. One Kayseri Begum found joy in the shared experience of worship at the Kaaba during Hajj.
Travel, learning and reform
One audience member asked if these women faced specific challenges related to their identities, especially in terms of gender and religion. “Some of these women were traveling to other parts of the Muslim world, so it wasn’t such an issue,” Lambert-Hurley said.
However, while traveling to Europe or North America, many often encountered stereotypes, particularly surrounding the veil. For example, Safiyyah Jabir Ali, in her travel account, addresses how people in Britain judged her. She said, “We are not anything as you imagine”.
An audience member raised another question about how these writings impacted other women, particularly in sparking curiosity and travel. “While few women wrote about their travels, many still traveled, especially within social networks like those in London, which included many Indian women often linked to princely families,” said Lambert-Hurley. “These writings likely circulated within these networks, inspiring and motivating future generations of women.”
Travel played a significant role in shaping the educational and reformist ideas of women. Sultan Jahan viewed travel as a form of informal education. During her time in Britain, she explored educational institutions, needlework clubs, and other activities, gathering knowledge as she promised to come back with new ideas for reform. When she came back to Bhopal, she applied what she learned, especially in the curriculum for girls’ schools. She famously referred to her journey as moving “from this land of ignorance to the land of refinement and learning”, illustrating how travel was closely tied to ideas of education and emancipation.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)