ABSTRACT
A discussion of So Long a Letter by a West African woman writer, Mariama Ba, will be used as a basis for highlighting the empowering and disempowering effects of particular types of education on women in the traditional African-Muslim context of Senegal. An examination of this issue in the novella indicates that the marginalization of Muslim women in this and other Muslim countries would be alleviated by the type of religious education which looks at the differences between Islamic principles and cultural practices as one of its key focus areas. Combined with a secular education which indicates a cognisance of present-day hybrid identities in postcolonial and other states, this approach has the potential to empower Muslim women to become more socially and politically active and thereby reconstruct their status in societies in which the forces of traditionalism often overpower basic Islamic principles as well as state legislation designed to promote women’s rights.
