Purdah

Definition:

Purdah is the practice of the seclusion of women from public observation by covering their bodies from head to toe. It is also a state of social isolation which confines women to their homes.

Statistics:

- Purdah is seen as a protection of the dignity of women

- In some cases, segregation is taken so seriously that houses are surrounded with eight to ten foot high Purdah walls

- Purdah is frequently carried to such extremes that women suffer from softening of bones, eczema, and ulcers due to lack of sunlight

- In Bangladesh women have been attacked with acid because they were brave enough to be seen in public, transgressing the traditional boundaries of Purdah

- Purdah restricts women’s access to medical care

Personal Impact Story

Before she pushed her way, fought through the dark birth passage, before the umbilical cord was cut and her lungs wakened to her first breath of air, Nailah’s birth was a disaster.

You could see it on the family of faces, read it in the body language. Her father’s pursed lips, silent curse; Grandmother and the other women shoulders rigid, frozen in silence, heads bowed, looking at the ground; Nailah’s male cousins scrunching their prayer caps in their hands, lips pouted in disappointment – no longer would they go to perform the azan and friends who, moments earlier promised sweets after the prayer, now giving quiet condolences; Uncle kissing father’s cheek, holding him by the shoulders, whispering; Grandfather, tears in his eyes, gnarled hands covering the crevasses of his aged skin before he slapped his daughter-in-law across the face.

The small line of blood bleeding through the dark fabric covering mother’s face, tooth knocked clean by her father-in-law’s hand, a lullaby, the same song sung for centuries by her family and the people from the land where she is from:

Why did you come, O girl, when we wished for a boy?
Take the jar and fill it from the sea.
May you fall into it and drown.

Mother’s faceless face, covered in the dark cloth of her burqa, another passage and other birth awaiting Nailah. A covering to surround Nailah like the placenta that followed her out of her mother’s body like a shadow, that once held her, hid her from her family’s expectant view. A layer to shadow her whole life behind the walls meant to protect her modesty and the family’s honour, behind closed doors and separate chambers. A new skin to cover her skin, to hide it from the sun, wind, from roving eyes, the unchaste. A dark layer to hide her tears and the smile few will ever see.

More sacrifices, more prayer, deeper submission the resolve written across father’s face as he hands Nailah to grandmother who will take her into the room where the women stay. Allah in his goodness will give more sons.

*the above story is based on facts but is fictional, for actual statistics order 30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless today