Word: purdah
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...land of the high flags" is what the prophet Zoroaster called the ancient country of the Afghans. The land of the high barriers is what it seemed to U.S. Schoolteacher Rosanne Klass in 1951, when she settled in the capital of Kabul. The barriers were purdah, which segregated man from woman, and the crypto-snobbery that kept the foreign colony aloof from the Afghan people. They were barriers, it would seem, that would last as long as the Koran and Kipling, except that Miss Klass did not come all the way from Cedar Rapids to be barred by them...
...More Purdah. The main dining room is for ladies alone or ladies with men. Lone males are barred. They must eat in the strictly misogynist grill or the large Madison Room,* where movies may be shown or the rug rolled back for dancing. Suburban wives have quarters where they can shower and change, retool the hairdo, or snooze awhile before meeting their Princetonian husbands for an evening on the town. And there have even been rumors that the club's three airconditioned squash courts might be made available to female racqueteers in off hours...
...ridiculous, or at least uninteresting. Princeton men, in particular, are becoming increasingly family-oriented; wives and children sometimes almost seem to outnumber old grads at the alumni reunions. Other city clubs have tried to adjust by setting aside special rooms for the ladies. But Princeton decided to end the purdah...
...respite to svelte Marie Claire Sandys, 34, who dressed down for carefree swimming parties while her statesman husband Duncan tried to settle local political disputes. The Moslem-oriented Indian Ocean isle seemed pleased with both guests, though Sandys objected strenuously when a photographer snapped his lady in definite un-purdah...
Next day, when Saudi Arabia's King Saud came to call on the President, Jackie Kennedy went into 24 hours of voluntary purdah. In deference to Arab custom, women were omitted from the official White House dinner for the King. Jackie flew off to Manhattan with her sister, Princess Lee Radziwill (for undisclosed reasons). That night, after the Saud dinner, Jack Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson betook themselves to a party given by the President's sister, Eunice Shriver. J.F.K. was dancing when the orchestra began a twist, but kept on sedately fox-trotting...