Word: purdah
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...elderly (about 45) to be only a third secretary, which was the post he filled for the past three years in the Soviet embassy at Canberra. But Petrov appeared to wield more authority than his rank called for. Plump and spectacled, he paid little attention to the rules of purdah for Russians abroad-he was affable, a good mixer, spoke fair English, frequented hotel bars, went on fishing trips with Westerners. With his pretty blonde wife, an embassy stenographer, he lived in a comfortable brick house less than a quarter of a mile from the embassy...
...tote but a stiff upper lip. Not so John Masters, exbrigadier of the Indian army. Bounced out of India by Indian independence, he has bounced right back again, figuratively, at least, with a self-imposed burden of Kiplingesque dimensions. The burden: to write 35 novels about the land of purdah and pukka sahibs, covering the rise and fall of British imperial rule. Bhowani Junction is 39-year-old Author Masters' fourth, and a Book-of-the-Month-Club choice for April. It covers part of the fall...
...gentle people of the Maidive Islands abolished their centuries-old sultanate and elected Amin Didi their first President (TIME. Jan. 12, 1953), they began to regret it. Amin Didi was chock-full of reform plans-he wrote a new anthem to the tune of Auld Lang Syne; he abolished purdah and designed a new Mother Hubbard for women to wear; he forced the men to elect women to the legislature; he built an elaborate handicraft shop, despite the fact that rarely more than a half dozen tourists a year visit the isolated island chain (pop. 90,000) southwest of Ceylon...
...newly created Pakistan, the mullahs were the people's leaders. They had a strong voice in the government. But when the country began establishing industries, hospitals, schools and banks, the mullahs protested that these innovations clashed with Islamic law. When Pakistani women shed their veils and emerged from purdah (complete seclusion in the home), the more fanatic mullahs were outraged. When the time came for Pakistan to draw up a constitution, the mullahs demanded that it be based on the Koran. (Result: Pakistan, a nation of 76 million, is still without a constitution.) The government of Prime Minister Kwaja...
...child wife was in labor, and the midwives had given up hope of saving her. Would Miss Scudder come to the rescue? Ida said that she was not a doctor, but that her father would be glad to help. The Brahman, shocked at the idea of violating purdah, bridled: "Your father come into my caste home and take care of my wife? She had better die!" That same night, a Moslem and another high-caste Hindu called on the same errand, got the same offer, gave the same retort. Next morning, Ida heard the tom-toms beat the death march...