Spearheading the empowerment of Muslim women

Both hushed and firm voices across the globe are stating that Sania Mirza can transform the world. Even as Sania herself blissfully rejoices in her remarkable climb up the WTA rankings—from 206 in December 2004 to her current of 34, with a career-best ranking of 31—she is clearly aware of the expectations that millions have placed on her slender but powerful shoulders.

It is quite certain that 18-year-old Mirza never realized that her tennis achievements would spearhead a revolution of sorts. Indeed, her meteoric rise from an unknown teenage tennis player from India's south-central city of Hyderabad to a global tennis icon featured in almost every well-read magazine and newspaper across the world, is unprecedented, to say the least.

For in spite of its geographical size and huge population, India is not known to be a sporting nation per se, having churned out few sports superstars, and even fewer female sporting superstars—especially in solo games such as tennis.

Mirza's success thus comes as a refreshing change, even as it catapults her into the top bracket of Indian sports stars, with 'Saniamania' taking India and its huge diaspora by storm.

So why are so many people expecting this traditional Indian Muslim girl to usher in change?

Mirza was born to upper-middle class, religious, educated parents, who have left no stone unturned in supporting their daughter's quest to be the best in world tennis.

Perhaps the fact that alongside their endeavors to improve their daughter's game, the Mirza's have ensured that she is firmly rooted in Muslim values has got many thinking about female role models who both conform and break out of the mold.

Mirza does not fit in with the straitlaced image of a backward, illiterate, repressed, conservative female Indian Muslim hidden behind a veil, and therefore nearly worthless. Quite the contrary, she stands for progressive thinking and achievement, while holding onto her cultural and religious background.

No wonder then that a recent brouhaha initiated by a radical Muslim cleric over her professional tennis attire encouraged a Muslim feminist organization, the Tamil Nadu Muslim Women's Jamaat Committee, to openly support her.

In the words of Daud Sharifa Khanam, the head of the organization, "If Islamic law says a woman is not supposed to wear such clothes, then they should know the same law also forbids dowry, alcoholism and incest," signaling that Muslim women see Mirza's success as a role model worthy of emulation.

The most important fact is that she is both female and a Muslim—a male teenage sensation, even if from a Muslim background, would never have caused such a frenzied response from India's teeming population, both youth and adults.

What is also worth mentioning is that Mirza has attempted to tread the path to success while maintaining complete decorum. She wears what is now known to be the professional attire of female tennis players all over the world. She does not dress likewise (in short skirts) when off the court.

Her gutsy T-shirt quotes, her traditional nose ring and her unconventional librarian glasses only reinforce the fact that within the highly successful teen tennis player's mind, there lies tremendous attitude and the will to break free from the shackles of tradition, but only when tradition stifles personal success—not to override her community's cultural sensibilities.

Even for those hard-core Hindu fundamentalists who believe that Indian Muslims are not open to change, Mirza is a perfect rejoinder. She is known to pray five times a day and observe other religious requirements. Still, she is solely responsible for bringing tennis to the front pages of a fanatically cricket-loving country and inspiring many young ones to take to the game.

No wonder then that the state is protecting her, where required, from harm by providing extra security, and a Madrassas (Islamic schools) board pronounced that it planned to include a chapter on Mirza in its school books.

Her tennis feats have been many firsts for an Indian woman, but another significant first is her appointment as ambassador of the "Save the Girl Child" campaign of the government's ministry of health and family welfare, the first time a Muslim woman has been given the opportunity to raise awareness of the need for gender equality in a country where young women are often not given the same privileges as young men.

Pretty much as Venus and Serena Williams' success in tennis stood for the achievement of a race, Mirza stands for attainment. In her case, though, the triumph is of a gender and a religious community over cultural and social constraints and far more.