[2][3] Sheikh is widely regarded as India's first Muslim woman teacher and is remembered for her role in educating and empowering women and marginalized communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

"[4] Sheikh and Savitribai subsequently received teacher training from Cynthia Farrar, an American missionary in Ahmednagar.

These "Native Female Schools" educated girls from diverse caste backgrounds, teaching the more advanced students a broad curriculum including history, geography, arithmetic, and socio-economic issues.

According to Jana Tschurenev, "Savitribai and Fatima Sheikh were the first Indian women teachers outside the domain of missionary supervision."

[13] However, Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, author of a 2023 biography of Savitribai Phule, later commented for a 2025 ThePrint article that "there is no evidence to suggest that she was born on the 9th of January".