INTRODUCTION

Bibi Ashraf, or Ashrafunnissa Begum (1840-1903), was a teacher at the Victoria Girls’ School in Lahore from the late 1880s until shortly before her death in 1903.  She also wrote poetry and essays for a local Urdu women’s magazine, Tehzib-e Niswan.  Among these was a rare autobiographical account of how, as a young Muslim girl in north India, she sought to educate herself.