Purdah,
the system of female
seclusion, is a salient feature of Islam as a religion.
It has visual, spatial and ethical dimensions. It is
both a garment, concealing the Muslim woman from sight,
as well as an ideology which demarcates the boundaries
of the Muslim woman's space and defines her sexual morality.
Originally instituted for the protection of the Muslim
woman, the purdah has gradually degraded to an
instrument of control and female subjugation and a system
of total exclusion of the woman from public life. The
institution of purdah has attracted the attention
of sociologists as well as creative writers right from
the period of colonial rule down to the present day.
This paper proposes to examine the treatment of purdah
in select subcontinental narratives either written in
English or appearing in translation. The multiple facets
of the purdah are analyzed in the light of the
works written by Attia Hosain, Ismat Chughtai and Nadeem
Aslam. The overt manifestations of the purdah
and its metaphorical and symbolic ramifications are
analyzed in the texts of these writers. This paper concludes
that the writers dwell more on the restrictive and repressive
aspects of purdah than on its protective aspects
There
are two pespectives on the Islamic tradition of purdah
in fictional narratives, one from the Indian side of
the subcontinent and the other, the Pakistani. For the
outside observer, the burqa-clad woman holds
an exotic fascination, an irresistible appeal. For the
woman within, it can be a stifling imposition, restricting
her social participation and reducing her to a mere
object of sex. More than a garment concealing the Muslim
woman from sight, the purdah is an ideology which
demarcates the boundaries of the Muslim woman's space
and defines her sexual morality.
This
social institution has figured in fictional narratives
produced in the subcontinent right from colonial times
down to the present. This paper proposes to examine
the treatment of purdah in select fictional narratives
produced in the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent. The paper
concentrates more on the women writers because purdah
is a societally enforced system that secludes the woman,
and hence, becomes an intimate experience for the women
writers. However, a male-authored narrative is also
analyzed as a study of purdah would be partial
and prejudiced without an examination of the male perspective. |
