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Purdah

This article is about the practice of female seclusion. For UK restrictions on political activity before an election or a budget, see Purdah (pre-election period) and Budget purdah.
Ladies of Caubul (1848 lithograph, by James Rattray) showing the lifting of purdah in zenana areas – Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library.
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Pardah or purdah (from Hindi-Urdu پردہ, पर्दा, meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of gender partition prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities.[1][2][3][4][5] It takes two forms: social partition of the sexes and the requirement that women cover their bodies so as to cover their skin and conceal their form. A woman who practices purdah can be referred to as pardanashin or purdahnishan. The term purdah is also used in English as a metaphor to describe practices such as the pre-election period of sensitivity occurring in the weeks leading up to a general election or referendum.[6]

Practices that restricted women's mobility and behavior existed among religious groups in India since ancient times and intensified with the arrival of Islam.[7] By the 19th century, purdah became customary among Hindu elites.[7] Purdah was not traditionally observed by lower-class women.[8]

Physical segregation within buildings is achieved with judicious use of walls, curtains, and screens. A woman's withdrawal into purdah usually restricts her personal, social and economic activities outside her home. The usual purdah garment worn is a burqa, which may or may not include a yashmak, a veil to conceal the face. The eyes may or may not be exposed.

Married Hindu women in parts of Northern India observe purdah, with some women wearing a ghoonghat in the presence of older male relations on their husbands' side;[9] Muslim women observe purdah through the wearing of a burqa.[10]

Purdah has been rigorously observed under the Taliban in Afghanistan, where women are forced to observe complete purdah at all times while in public. Only close male family members and other women are allowed to see them out of purdah. In other societies, purdah is often only practised during certain times of religious significance.

  1. ^ Wilkinson-Weber, Clare M. (25 March 1999). Embroidering Lives: Women's Work and Skill in the Lucknow Embroidery Industry. SUNY Press. p. 74. ISBN 9780791440889. Purdah regulates the interactions of women with certain kinds of men. Typically, Hindu women must avoid specific male affines (in-laws) and Muslim women are restricted from contact with men outside the family, or at least their contact with these men is highly circumscribed (Papanek 1982:3). In practice, many elements of both "Hindu" and "Muslim" purdah are shared by women of both groups in South Asia (Vatuk 1982; Jeffery 1979), and Hindu and Muslim women both adopt similar strategies of self-effacement, like covering the face, keeping silent, and looking down, when in the company of persons to be avoided.
  2. ^ "Purdah". Encyclopædia Britannica. 9 May 2008. purdah, also spelled Pardah, Hindi Parda ("screen," or "veil"), practice that was inaugurated by Muslims and later adopted by various Hindus, especially in India, and that involves the seclusion of women from public observation by means of concealing clothing (including the veil) and by the use of high-walled enclosures, screens, and curtains within the home.
  3. ^ Raheja, Gloria Goodwin; Gold, Ann Grodzins (29 April 1994). Listen to the Heron's Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North India. University of California Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-520-08371-4. The literal meaning of "purdah" is, as already noted, "a curtain." In rural Rajasthan for a woman to observe purdah (in Hindi, pardā rakhnā, "to keep purdah"; pardā karnā, "to do purdah") usually includes these behavioral components, adhered to with highly varying degrees of strictness: in her marital village she doesn't leave the house, and she veils her face in front of all strangers and certain categories of male kin.
  4. ^ Strulik, Stefanie (2014). Politics Embedded: Women's Quota and Local Democracy. Negotiating Gender Relations in North India. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 50. ISBN 978-3-643-80163-0. Purdah in Urdu literally means "curtain". Today, in Hindi it is used for both: in the literal sense for curtain and to refer to a system of seclusion and concealment of the body in the name of "respect" towards (male) elder (fictive and blood-related) family members and is construed as fundamental to maintaining family "honour".
  5. ^ Doane, Mary Ann (18 October 2021). Bigger Than Life: The Close-Up and Scale in the Cinema. Duke University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-4780-2178-0. In this respect, it is very interesting to note that the term "purdah," designating the veil worn over a woman's face in certain Islamic societies, is derived from the Hindi and Urdu "parda," meaning "screen," "curtain," or "veil."
  6. ^ Johnston, Neil (2024). "Pre-election period of sensitivity". parliament.uk. London: Parliament of the United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 2024-06-08.
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Walsh2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference misra was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Gupta, Kamala (2003). Women In Hindu Social System (1206–1707 A.D.). Inter-India Publications. ISBN 9788121004145. Hindu ladies covered their head with a kind of veil known as Ghoonghat.
  10. ^ Sengupta, Jayita (2006). Refractions of Desire, Feminist Perspectives in the Novels of Toni Morrison, Michèle Roberts, and Anita Desai. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 25. ISBN 9788126906291.

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