Recent decades have seen Senegalese Arabic and Islamic schools gradually opening up and adapting to larger numbers of girls. This article analyzes how this broader access aims to protect young girls from social evils on the one hand, and prepares them for future roles that are in line with specific religious norms on the other. As a result, Arab-Islamic education now provides a locus for investigating both schooling for girls and gender relations. Even as the education system places women at the centre of social reconfigurations, it also fabricates and promotes a ’feminine ideal’ in its discourse and imagery.