Purdah: Separate Worlds and Symbolic Shelter
- 1 January 1973
- journal article
- women and-social-controls
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Comparative Studies in Society and History
- Vol. 15 (3), 289-325
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s001041750000712x
Abstract
Purdah, meaning curtain, is the word most commonly used for the system of secluding women and enforcing high standards of female modesty in much of South Asia. Purdah is an important part of the life experience of many South Asians, both Muslim and Hindu, and is a central feature of the social systems of the area. The crucial characteristic of the purdah system is its limitation on interaction between women and males outside certain well-defined categories, which differ among Muslims and Hindus. Muslim purdah restrictions do not apply within the immediate kin unit,but only outside it, while Hindu purdah is based on a set of avoidance rules between a woman and her male affines. Muslim seclusion begins at puberty, Hindu seclusion strictly speaking begins with marriage.Keywords
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