Religious education refers to both formal and informal ways in which Muslim girls and women are schooled in religious knowledge in South Asia. This entry looks at the manner in which this religious knowledge is imparted and to whom, as well as the content of religious instruction in its historical and contemporary contexts in South Asia. There is considerable literature on Muslim women and education in general in the subcontinent, but very little comparative research on their religious education specifically.

During the medieval period, in Muslim society in India, elementar…