The India of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was not the India of today, it was a long time before feminist thought became fashionable among pinnacles of intellectual discourse, it was a time when the fight for survival against alien suppression had to be at the forefront of every action taken by a thinking Indian. It is in this context that if we analyze Sir Syed Ahmad's vision and efforts towards women's education, it becomes truly enriching. Sir Syed Ahmad's contribution to the advancement of higher education in India is not only monumental but also truly way ahead of its time. Analyzing the work and achievements of men so firmly rooted in history comes with a caveat: as we scrutinize their lives, we often make the cardinal mistake of allowing ourselves to enter a time warp, that is, of forgetting that the actions of people who passed away have long needed to be observed in relation to the different socioeconomic and structural factors at play during his life or at the moment in which he made the decisions in question. Let us first put things in perspective by analyzing the context from four directions, firstly the situation of women in India during the time of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, secondly the educational framework of the country as a whole during that period, thirdly place the positive picture the impact that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's efforts have had on the educational status of women in India and finally, the organic growth of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's ideas and ideals and their evolution up to the present times. Status of Women in India In the early part of the nineteenth century, when Sir Syed Ahmad was born (1817 to be precise), the status of women in India was not something we can be proud of. Noted historian Dr. Bipin Chandra has this to say about the precarious position of women in India in the early 19th century: “Say no to plagiarism.” Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The most distressing thing was the position of women. The birth of a girl was unwelcome, her marriage a burden, and her widowhood unfortunate. Attempts to kill baby girls at birth were not unusual. Those who escaped this early brutality were subjected to marital violence at an early age. Often this marriage was an expedient to escape social ignominy and, therefore, married life did not prove to be a pleasant experience. An eighty-year-old Brahmin from Bengal had as many as two hundred wives, the youngest being just eight years old. Many women hardly had a married life worthy of the name, since their husbands attended wedding ceremonies for consideration and rarely set eyes on their wives after that. However, when their husbands died, they had to commit Sati which Rammohan Roy described as "murder" according to every shastra. If they managed to overcome this social coercion, they were condemned, as widows, to poverty, abandonment and humiliation for life. «The condition of Muslim women regarding education was even worse, because a Muslim daughter was doubly disadvantaged. The Muslim community in India, unlike its counterparts of other faiths, had failed to develop a bourgeois middle class due to lack of trust and suspicion in Western norms and English education, as Sir Syed observed while the Bengalis had adopted English education and were gradually placed in relatively higher positions within the government, Muslims in India had a long way to go. This explains his immense emphasis on young Muslims to undertake scientific studies.