INTRODUCTION
India being a diverse country in terms of ethnicity, religion and culture, has
Muslims as its largest minority group. Muslim women form a significant part of the
Islamic society in India. However, Muslim women are far more backward than the
other women in India. Except Muslims, all the rest of the major religions have
literacy rates higher than the national average. Muslims have a total literacy rate of
59.1 percent, below the national average of 64.8 percent, amongst which the male
literacy rate (67.6 %) is below the national average of 75.3 percent and the female
literacy rate (50.1%) is below the national average of 53.7 percent (Census of India,
2011).
Muslim women remain largely backward and deprived. They continue to be
uneducated, resourceless and victimized despite the informative attitude of Islamic
movement (Chaturvedi, 2003). Muslim women are changing gradually, but the change
is painfully slow. At the all India level Muslim women are three times behind their
Hindu sisters. The attainment of higher education among Muslim girls is a rare
phenomenon even in the urban areas (Shazli & Asma, 2015). Muslim adolescent
girls need to realize and enjoy their full human rights and start a process of reform
within the community and empowerment through affirmative action programmes for
greater access to educational, economic and political institutions and opportunities
(Munjial & Kaushik, 2013). One important social skill needed by these young girls
to overcome these challenges is assertiveness. Assertiveness is a social skill that can
greatly help a woman to achieve self empowerment.
Assertiveness is defined as the practice of behaviour which enables
individuals to act in their best interest or stand up for themselves without undue
anxiety, or to express their rights without denying the rights of others (Alberti &
Emmons, 1970; Wolpe, 1969). Most definitions of assertiveness emphasize direct
expression of feelings, desires and thoughts in interpersonal contexts. Definitions of
assertive behaviour put an emphasis on individual rights (Eskin, 2003),
