Word: purdah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Pakistan, upon its creation in 1947, began to loosen some of the old restrictions on women: purdah lost ground, women got a couple of seats (which they still hold) in the parliament. But the mullahs of Islam have reasserted the old customs; the Begum Liaquat Ali Khan, widow of the assassinated Premier and once a militant suffragist, has been forced into a quiet life, and the wife of the new Premier hides uncomplainingly in strictest purdah...
...Begum Liaquat Ali Khan, the Prime Minister's black-haired, bouncy wife, is the daughter of a Hindu Brahman turned Christian. She herself became a devout Moslem. To free Moslem women from purdah, she organized the white-pajamaed, pigtailed Pakistan Women's National Guard. "See these women?" she says, "they were in purdah once. Do you see any purdah now?" Married 17 years, Liaquat and the Begum have two sons, Ashraf, 12, and Akbar, 9, both aspiring musicians...
...Women in Purdah. Israel's first election campaign rumbled along in good ward-political style. Politicians fought each other tooth & nail for the limited campaign facilities. Parties accused each other of renting all the public halls in Tel Aviv although they had no intention of actually using them; one party was accused of trying to catch the Rumanian immigrant vote by leasing Tel Aviv's only Rumanian printing press...
During a big Jinnah public meeting in Lahore, a mullah (priest) lashed out, during his preliminary prayer in the Urdu language, at women who violate purdah (seclusion). Fatima, sitting a few feet from the mullah, with her face, as always, unveiled, did not take in the criticism; neither she nor her brother (who was sitting on a golden throne high above the crowd) speaks Urdu, the language of Jinnah's western domain...
...Prime Minister Lia-quat Ali Khan and India's Jawaharlal Nehru held special discussions about it last week; both Governments agreed to hunt out and return abducted women. It would not be easy. The women were scattered far & wide; those taken by Moslems were veiled in purdah. Harder still was the problem of persuading devout Sikhs and Hindus to take their violated women back...