purdah

Definition

A curtain, especially one used in some Hindu or Muslim traditions to conceal women from the gaze of people, particularly men and strangers.

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindustani پردہ / पर्दा (pardā), and its etymon Classical Persian پرده (pardah, “curtain; screen; (archaic) veil”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”).

Example Sentences

• "As she passed through the dining-room she heard, behind the purdah that cloaked the drawing-room door, her husband's voice, […]"
• ""Come and see my wife a little then," said Hamidullah, and they spent twenty minutes behind the purdah."
• "He was won by her love for him, by a loyalty that implied something more than submission, and by her efforts to educate herself against that lifting of the purdah that would come in the next generation if not in theirs."