Frogs in a Well: Indian Women in Purdah

by Patricia Jeffery

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0905762320
• ISBN13: 9780905762326
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Zed Books
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Nicely Done

This book is a description of purdah practices and attitudes in a small Indian Muslim village near Delhi. Jeffery lived and conducted research in the village during the mid-1970s. The village was located near the shrine to Saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, and the men of the village pursued their ancestral avocation of taking care of the shrine and its pilgrims. The men's work at the shrine provided a modest yet dependable income which allowed the women to stay at home rather than go out to work. As Jeffery describes it, purdah, or the seclusion of women in the home, is an ideal that can only be realized when economic resources are sufficient. Jeffery describes purdah in many aspects, from Western analyses of culture and economics, to Islamic law and tradition. To this, she adds interviews with the women and men of the village about what purdah means to them, acceptable behavior for women and men, and attitudes towards purdah. Jeffery finds that the village women are on the one hand frustrated by the limitations on their freedom of movement, but on the other hand, also afraid to go out because of the harassment of strangers. She argues that women play as much a role in the perpetuation of the cultural practice as men, but notes that the customs are changing.