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Despite purdah women in urban areas have a lot of freedoms that their counterparts in the rural areas do not have. What are these freedoms and how do women employ them ?

Despite purdah women in urban areas have a lot of freedoms that their counterparts in the rural areas do not have. What are these freedoms and how do women employ them ?

Social Psychology (10th Edition)
Social Psychology (10th Edition)
10th Edition
ISBN:9780134641287
Author:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Publisher:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Chapter1: Introducing Social Psychology
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Life Behind the Veil questions: 

3) Despite purdah women in urban areas have a lot of freedoms that their counterparts in the rural areas do not have. What are these freedoms and how do women employ them ? 

4) 

<Course 5:17 who the Life Behind the Veil Article lair- War ston rre- e in the aid ave sjass 2166 1 Life Behind the Veil Ar... Harvard professors Cherry Lindholm and Charles Lindholm metaphorically remove the veil from Moslem women in Pakistan, who are of a strict purdah society, to reveal how this "institution of female seclusion" influences all Pakhtun societal practices and institutions. The bazaar teems with activity. Pedestrians throng the narrow streets, wending past donkey carts, cyclists, and overloaded vehicles. Vendors haggle in the dark doorways of their shops. Pitiful beggars shuffle among the crowds, while bearded religious mendicants wander about, their eyes fixed on a distant world. Drifting among the mobs of men are, here and there, anonymous figures hidden beneath volumi- nous folds of material, who float along like ships in full sail, graceful, mysterious, faceless, instilling in the observer a sense both of awe and of curiosity. These are the Moslem women of the Middle East. Their dress is the customary chador, which they wear when obliged to leave the privacy of their homes. The chador is but one means by which women maintain their purdah, the institution of female seclusion, which requires that women should remain unseen by men who are not close relatives and strikes Westerners as so totally for- eign and incomprehensible. 170 Life Behind the Veil Cherry Lindholm and Charles Lindholm Sometimes the alien aspect is tempered with a touch of Western familiarity. A pair of plastic sunglasses may gleam from behind the lace that covers the eyes, or a platform shoe might peep forth from beneath the hem of the flowing chador. Nevertheless, the overall presence remains one of inscrutability and is perhaps the most striking image of Middle Eastern societies. We spent nine months in one of the most strict of all the purdah societies, the Yusufzai Pakhtun of the Swat Valley in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. ("Pakhtun" is the Source: Reprinted by permission of the authors. Womens Place 15 The nome Bi IN YOU Stoning of Sprayah in the home or the grave." Years ago in Swat, if a woman broke her purdah, her husband might kill her or cut off her nose as punishment and as a means of cleansing his honor. If a woman is caught alone with an unrelated man, it will al- ways be assumed that the liaison is sexual, and public opinion will oblige her husband to shoot her, even if he does not desire her death; to go un- avenged is to be known henceforth as begherata, or man without honor. As such, he would no longer have the right to call himself Pakhtun. A shameless woman is a threat to the whole so- ciety. Our host remembered witnessing, thirty years ago when he was a child, the entire village stoning an adulteress. This punishment is pre- scribed by Islamic law, though the law requires there be four witnesses to the sexual act itself to establish guilt Nowadau .... 56 J' + designation preferred by the tribesmen, who were generally called Pathans in the days of the British raj.) We had come to the Swat Valley after a hair- raising ride on a rickety bus from Peshawar over the 10,280-foot Malakand Pass. Winston Churchill came this way as a young war corre- spondent attached to the Malakand Field Force in 1897. As we came into the valley, about half the size of Connecticut, we passed a sign that said WELCOME TO SWAT. We were fortunate to have entrée into the community through a Swati friend we had made eight years before. In Swat, women are secluded inside the domestic compound except for family rituals, such as marriage, circumcision, and funerals, or visits to saint's tombs. A woman must always be in the protective company of other women and is never allowed out alone. It tells a great deal about the community that the word for husband in Pakhto, the language of the Pakhtun, is kwawund, which also means God. Moments of Culture Clash L Adaptation However, as everywhere, rules are sometimes broken or, more frequently, cleverly manipulated. Our Pakhtun host's stepmother, Bibi, an intelli- gent and forceful woman, was renowned for her tactics. Once, when all the females of the house- hold had been forbidden to leave the compound to receive cholera inoculations at the temporary clinic next door, Bibi respectfully bowed her head and assured the men they could visit the mosque with easy minds. Once the men had gone, she promptly climbed the ladder to the flat roof and summoned the doctor to the door of her com- pound. One by one, the women extended their bare arms through the doorway and received their shots. Later Bibi could honestly swear that no woman had set foot outside the compound walls, Despite such circumventions, purdah is of paramount importance in Swat. As one Pakhtun proverb succinctly states: "The woman's place is Life Behind the Veil 171 and some middle-aged and even young men ad- mitted to us that they had lost their interest in women. Sometimes, though rarely, a young bride- groom will find himself incapable of consummat- ing his marriage, either because he finds his bride unattractive or because he has been previously en- chanted by a male lover and has become impotent in a heterosexual relationship. Homosexuality has never been seen as aberrant in the Middle East. As a famous Afghan saying humorously declares: "A woman is for bearing children, a boy is for. pleasure, but ecstasy is a ripe watermelon!" How- →? ever, with Western influence, homosexuality in the Middle East is now less overt. But even when it was common and open, the man was still ex- pected to marry and produce children. Men must marry, though women are regarded A Ra
Transcribed Image Text:<Course 5:17 who the Life Behind the Veil Article lair- War ston rre- e in the aid ave sjass 2166 1 Life Behind the Veil Ar... Harvard professors Cherry Lindholm and Charles Lindholm metaphorically remove the veil from Moslem women in Pakistan, who are of a strict purdah society, to reveal how this "institution of female seclusion" influences all Pakhtun societal practices and institutions. The bazaar teems with activity. Pedestrians throng the narrow streets, wending past donkey carts, cyclists, and overloaded vehicles. Vendors haggle in the dark doorways of their shops. Pitiful beggars shuffle among the crowds, while bearded religious mendicants wander about, their eyes fixed on a distant world. Drifting among the mobs of men are, here and there, anonymous figures hidden beneath volumi- nous folds of material, who float along like ships in full sail, graceful, mysterious, faceless, instilling in the observer a sense both of awe and of curiosity. These are the Moslem women of the Middle East. Their dress is the customary chador, which they wear when obliged to leave the privacy of their homes. The chador is but one means by which women maintain their purdah, the institution of female seclusion, which requires that women should remain unseen by men who are not close relatives and strikes Westerners as so totally for- eign and incomprehensible. 170 Life Behind the Veil Cherry Lindholm and Charles Lindholm Sometimes the alien aspect is tempered with a touch of Western familiarity. A pair of plastic sunglasses may gleam from behind the lace that covers the eyes, or a platform shoe might peep forth from beneath the hem of the flowing chador. Nevertheless, the overall presence remains one of inscrutability and is perhaps the most striking image of Middle Eastern societies. We spent nine months in one of the most strict of all the purdah societies, the Yusufzai Pakhtun of the Swat Valley in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. ("Pakhtun" is the Source: Reprinted by permission of the authors. Womens Place 15 The nome Bi IN YOU Stoning of Sprayah in the home or the grave." Years ago in Swat, if a woman broke her purdah, her husband might kill her or cut off her nose as punishment and as a means of cleansing his honor. If a woman is caught alone with an unrelated man, it will al- ways be assumed that the liaison is sexual, and public opinion will oblige her husband to shoot her, even if he does not desire her death; to go un- avenged is to be known henceforth as begherata, or man without honor. As such, he would no longer have the right to call himself Pakhtun. A shameless woman is a threat to the whole so- ciety. Our host remembered witnessing, thirty years ago when he was a child, the entire village stoning an adulteress. This punishment is pre- scribed by Islamic law, though the law requires there be four witnesses to the sexual act itself to establish guilt Nowadau .... 56 J' + designation preferred by the tribesmen, who were generally called Pathans in the days of the British raj.) We had come to the Swat Valley after a hair- raising ride on a rickety bus from Peshawar over the 10,280-foot Malakand Pass. Winston Churchill came this way as a young war corre- spondent attached to the Malakand Field Force in 1897. As we came into the valley, about half the size of Connecticut, we passed a sign that said WELCOME TO SWAT. We were fortunate to have entrée into the community through a Swati friend we had made eight years before. In Swat, women are secluded inside the domestic compound except for family rituals, such as marriage, circumcision, and funerals, or visits to saint's tombs. A woman must always be in the protective company of other women and is never allowed out alone. It tells a great deal about the community that the word for husband in Pakhto, the language of the Pakhtun, is kwawund, which also means God. Moments of Culture Clash L Adaptation However, as everywhere, rules are sometimes broken or, more frequently, cleverly manipulated. Our Pakhtun host's stepmother, Bibi, an intelli- gent and forceful woman, was renowned for her tactics. Once, when all the females of the house- hold had been forbidden to leave the compound to receive cholera inoculations at the temporary clinic next door, Bibi respectfully bowed her head and assured the men they could visit the mosque with easy minds. Once the men had gone, she promptly climbed the ladder to the flat roof and summoned the doctor to the door of her com- pound. One by one, the women extended their bare arms through the doorway and received their shots. Later Bibi could honestly swear that no woman had set foot outside the compound walls, Despite such circumventions, purdah is of paramount importance in Swat. As one Pakhtun proverb succinctly states: "The woman's place is Life Behind the Veil 171 and some middle-aged and even young men ad- mitted to us that they had lost their interest in women. Sometimes, though rarely, a young bride- groom will find himself incapable of consummat- ing his marriage, either because he finds his bride unattractive or because he has been previously en- chanted by a male lover and has become impotent in a heterosexual relationship. Homosexuality has never been seen as aberrant in the Middle East. As a famous Afghan saying humorously declares: "A woman is for bearing children, a boy is for. pleasure, but ecstasy is a ripe watermelon!" How- →? ever, with Western influence, homosexuality in the Middle East is now less overt. But even when it was common and open, the man was still ex- pected to marry and produce children. Men must marry, though women are regarded A Ra
<Course MYSOTH THX P98 原且卢戈西装器售房吊营着唐言 Life Behind the Veil Article who air- War ston rre- e in the aid 5:17 ave ept aggressors 2 5b. sexua this Womens Place weak to Life Behind the Veil Ar... Women are seen men are > 15 14 The Stoning of Sprayah 11 in the home or the grave." Years ago in Swat, if a woman broke her purdah, her husband might kill her or cut off her nose as punishment and as a means of cleansing his honor. If a woman is caught alone with an unrelated man, it will al- ways be assumed that the liaison is sexual, and public opinion will oblige her husband to shoot her, even if he does not desire her death; to go un- avenged is to be known henceforth as begherata, or man without honor. As such, he would no longer have the right to call himself Pakhtun. A shameless woman is a threat to the whole so- ciety. Our host remembered witnessing, thirty years ago when he was a child, the entire village stoning an adulteress. This punishment is pre- scribed by Islamic law, though the law requires there be four witnesses to the sexual act itself to establish guilt. Nowadays, punishments for wifely misdemeanors have become less harsh, though adulterous wives are still killed. how it has ditional geneder roles. nome 8: IN YOU In the rural areas, poorer families generally cannot maintain purdah as rigorously as their wealthier neighbors, for often a wife must help her husband in the fields or become a servant. Nevertheless, she is required to keep her hair covered at all times and to interact with men to a minimum. Here again, the rules are sometimes flouted, and a poor woman might entice a man with her eyes, or even, according to village men who claimed personal experiences, become more aggressive in her seductive attempts and actually seize a man in a deserted alleyway and lure him into her house. Often, the man is persuaded. Such a woman will accept money from her lover, who is usually a man from a wealthy family. Her husband is then a begherata, but some men ac- quiesce to the situation because of the money the wife is earning or because of fear of the wife's so- cially superior and more powerful lover. But most poor men, and certainly all the elite, keep their women under strict control. 11 In the Islamic Middle East, women are viewed as powerful and dangerous beings, highly sexual and lacking in personal discipline and discrimina- tion. In Middle Eastern thought, sexual inter- course itself, though polluting, lacks the same negative connotations it has in the West. It has al- ways been believed that women have sexual cli- maxes, and there is no notion of female frigidity. Male impotence, however, is well-documented, J .... 56 Life Behind the Veil and some middle-aged and even young men ad- mitted to us that they had lost their interest in women. Sometimes, though rarely, a young bride- groom will find himself incapable of consummat- ing his marriage, either because he finds his bride unattractive or because he has been previously en- chanted by a male lover and has become impotent in a heterosexual relationship. Homosexuality has never been seen as aberrant in the Middle East. As a famous Afghan saying humorously declares: "A woman is for bearing children, a boy is for. pleasure, but ecstasy is a ripe watermelon!" How- ever, with Western influence, homosexuality in the Middle East is now less overt. But even when it was common and open, the man was still ex- pected to marry and produce children. A strany Mans 172 Family, Marriage, and Kinship head or across the shoulders; she may even decide to adopt modest Western dress. The extent of this transformation will depend partly upon the atti- tude of the community in which she lives. In the urban centers of the stricter purdah re- gions the public display of purdah is scrupulous, sometimes even more striking than that of the tribal village. Behind the scenes, though, the city-dwelling woman does have more freedom than she would have in the village. She will be able to visit not only relatives but friends without + Men must marry, though women are regarded as a chaotic and anarchic force. They are believed to possess many times the sexual desire of men and constitute a potential threat to the family and the family's honor, which is based in large mea- sure on the possession and control of women and their excessive and dangerous sexuality. Among the Pakhtun of Swat, where the male- female relation is one of the most hostile in the Middle East, the man avoids showing affection to his wife, for fear she will become too self- confident and will begin to assert herself in ways that insult his position and honor. She may start by leaving the compound without his permission and, if unchecked, may end by bringing outside men into the house for sexual encounters, secure in the knowledge that her husband, weakened by his affection for her, will not take action. This course of events is considered inevitable by men and women alike and was illustrated by a few ac- tual cases in the village where we lived. Women are therefore much feared, despite the pronouncements of male supremacy. They must be controlled, in order to prevent their alarming basic natures from coming to the fore and causing dishonor to their own lineages. Purdah is gener- ally described as a system that serves to protect the woman, but implicitly it protects the men and society in general from the potentially disruptive actions of the powerful female sex. Changes are occurring, however, particularly in the modern urban centers. The educated urban woman often dispenses with the chador replacing it with a simple length of veiling draped over the weakness is women 171 A women are d fear power power less purdan atrilinial P The Middle Eastern kinship system is known to anthropologists as a segmentary-lineage orga- nization; the basic idea is that kinship is traced through one line only. In the Middle East, the sys- tem is patrilineal, which means that the male line is followed, and all the links through women are ignored. An individual can therefore trace his re- lationship to any other individual in the society and know the exact genealogical distance between them; i.e., the distance that must be traced to reach a common mala RA
Transcribed Image Text:<Course MYSOTH THX P98 原且卢戈西装器售房吊营着唐言 Life Behind the Veil Article who air- War ston rre- e in the aid 5:17 ave ept aggressors 2 5b. sexua this Womens Place weak to Life Behind the Veil Ar... Women are seen men are > 15 14 The Stoning of Sprayah 11 in the home or the grave." Years ago in Swat, if a woman broke her purdah, her husband might kill her or cut off her nose as punishment and as a means of cleansing his honor. If a woman is caught alone with an unrelated man, it will al- ways be assumed that the liaison is sexual, and public opinion will oblige her husband to shoot her, even if he does not desire her death; to go un- avenged is to be known henceforth as begherata, or man without honor. As such, he would no longer have the right to call himself Pakhtun. A shameless woman is a threat to the whole so- ciety. Our host remembered witnessing, thirty years ago when he was a child, the entire village stoning an adulteress. This punishment is pre- scribed by Islamic law, though the law requires there be four witnesses to the sexual act itself to establish guilt. Nowadays, punishments for wifely misdemeanors have become less harsh, though adulterous wives are still killed. how it has ditional geneder roles. nome 8: IN YOU In the rural areas, poorer families generally cannot maintain purdah as rigorously as their wealthier neighbors, for often a wife must help her husband in the fields or become a servant. Nevertheless, she is required to keep her hair covered at all times and to interact with men to a minimum. Here again, the rules are sometimes flouted, and a poor woman might entice a man with her eyes, or even, according to village men who claimed personal experiences, become more aggressive in her seductive attempts and actually seize a man in a deserted alleyway and lure him into her house. Often, the man is persuaded. Such a woman will accept money from her lover, who is usually a man from a wealthy family. Her husband is then a begherata, but some men ac- quiesce to the situation because of the money the wife is earning or because of fear of the wife's so- cially superior and more powerful lover. But most poor men, and certainly all the elite, keep their women under strict control. 11 In the Islamic Middle East, women are viewed as powerful and dangerous beings, highly sexual and lacking in personal discipline and discrimina- tion. In Middle Eastern thought, sexual inter- course itself, though polluting, lacks the same negative connotations it has in the West. It has al- ways been believed that women have sexual cli- maxes, and there is no notion of female frigidity. Male impotence, however, is well-documented, J .... 56 Life Behind the Veil and some middle-aged and even young men ad- mitted to us that they had lost their interest in women. Sometimes, though rarely, a young bride- groom will find himself incapable of consummat- ing his marriage, either because he finds his bride unattractive or because he has been previously en- chanted by a male lover and has become impotent in a heterosexual relationship. Homosexuality has never been seen as aberrant in the Middle East. As a famous Afghan saying humorously declares: "A woman is for bearing children, a boy is for. pleasure, but ecstasy is a ripe watermelon!" How- ever, with Western influence, homosexuality in the Middle East is now less overt. But even when it was common and open, the man was still ex- pected to marry and produce children. A strany Mans 172 Family, Marriage, and Kinship head or across the shoulders; she may even decide to adopt modest Western dress. The extent of this transformation will depend partly upon the atti- tude of the community in which she lives. In the urban centers of the stricter purdah re- gions the public display of purdah is scrupulous, sometimes even more striking than that of the tribal village. Behind the scenes, though, the city-dwelling woman does have more freedom than she would have in the village. She will be able to visit not only relatives but friends without + Men must marry, though women are regarded as a chaotic and anarchic force. They are believed to possess many times the sexual desire of men and constitute a potential threat to the family and the family's honor, which is based in large mea- sure on the possession and control of women and their excessive and dangerous sexuality. Among the Pakhtun of Swat, where the male- female relation is one of the most hostile in the Middle East, the man avoids showing affection to his wife, for fear she will become too self- confident and will begin to assert herself in ways that insult his position and honor. She may start by leaving the compound without his permission and, if unchecked, may end by bringing outside men into the house for sexual encounters, secure in the knowledge that her husband, weakened by his affection for her, will not take action. This course of events is considered inevitable by men and women alike and was illustrated by a few ac- tual cases in the village where we lived. Women are therefore much feared, despite the pronouncements of male supremacy. They must be controlled, in order to prevent their alarming basic natures from coming to the fore and causing dishonor to their own lineages. Purdah is gener- ally described as a system that serves to protect the woman, but implicitly it protects the men and society in general from the potentially disruptive actions of the powerful female sex. Changes are occurring, however, particularly in the modern urban centers. The educated urban woman often dispenses with the chador replacing it with a simple length of veiling draped over the weakness is women 171 A women are d fear power power less purdan atrilinial P The Middle Eastern kinship system is known to anthropologists as a segmentary-lineage orga- nization; the basic idea is that kinship is traced through one line only. In the Middle East, the sys- tem is patrilineal, which means that the male line is followed, and all the links through women are ignored. An individual can therefore trace his re- lationship to any other individual in the society and know the exact genealogical distance between them; i.e., the distance that must be traced to reach a common mala RA
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