The free and complete opening of the professions, the final abolition of the
zenana I call it, and the franchise to all women who pay Queen's taxes above a certain sum.
Zohra is proud to claim, "We've done away with all that
zenana business" (Shahnawaz, 1957, p.
LAHORE:In 1616, behind the jalis (screens) that concealed the
zenana in all the royal palaces, 39-year-old Nur Jahan faced something of a quandary.
In her novel Purdah and Polygamy: Life in an Indian Muslim Household, Hussain gives a plausible, fly-on-the-wall experience of life in a
zenana [women's quarters].
Women -- despite the strictures of purdah and the establishment of separate female courts, known as "
zenana" -- played catalysing roles as patrons and collectors, bringing new customs, art forms, and tastes into court life.
The key to the solution lies within the
zenana, the area where the king's wives and concubines live and gossip, and where the only men allowed are eunuchs (a sacrifice Wyndham is not prepared to make to solve the case, at least not yet).
Unlike the palace with traditional segregated mardana and
zenana (men's and women's quarters), they were all under one roof.
Some of his earlier photographs at times slip into the performative register of
zenana photographs, in the 19th-century style of Raja Deen Dayal.
A stunning surprise for those who dare search for a unique experience, reports Anna Moggia is Owner of Boutique Hotel
Zenana.
British women at this time served to quell nationalist impulses by establishing racial superiority against middle and upper class Indian women confined to the
Zenana. For British women, the
Zenana was evidence Indians had not embraced liberalism and were not ready for self-rule, thereby justifying their presence.
However, I was not prepared to find her dutifully in charge of the Baptist
Zenana Mission's sweet stall at the Loughton Union Church in 1908-9, raising money to help "oppressed" Indian women held "captive" in the zenana--the exclusively female quarters within South Asian households.