Within the life of one South Asian village or urban neighborhood, there can be considerable cultural variety. Differences based on caste, economic class, ethnic background, gender, religion, and even language are usually accommodated peacefully by longstanding customs, such as religious and ethnic festivals and food-ways (Figure 8.27 and Figure 8.28), that guide cross-cultural interaction. However, South Asia is also undergoing a number of social changes, political shifts, and cultural transitions that challenge many traditional practices, especially those related to gender.

The vast majority—about 70 percent—of South Asians live in the hundreds of thousands of villages. Even many of those now living in South Asia’s giant cities were born in a village or occasionally visit an ancestral rural community, so for most people village life is a common experience.

The status of women in South Asia varies significantly along rural/urban and religious divides. Generally speaking, rural women have far less freedom than do urban women. In rural India, middle- and upper-caste Hindu women are often more restricted in their movements than are lower-caste women because they have a status to maintain. Meanwhile, lower-caste women who go into public spaces may have to contend with sexual harassment and exploitation from upper-caste men. The socioeconomic status of Muslim women in South Asia is notably lower than that of their Hindu and Christian counterparts. In India, some of this is related to the generally lower incomes and standard of living for Muslims, which also usually means lower educational levels. Muslim women also work outside the home less than non-Muslim women in India. Low rates of education and workforce participation for women also prevail in Muslim-dominated countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, though rates are significantly higher in Bangladesh.

187. SUFI ROCK SINGER FALU BLENDS OLD WITH NEW

191. REMEMBERING PAKISTAN’S FORMER PRIME MINISTER BENAZIR BHUTTO

Purdah The practice of concealing women from the eyes of nonfamily men, especially during women’s reproductive years, is known as purdah. It is observed in various ways across the region. The practice is strongest in Afghanistan and across the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where within both Muslim and Hindu communities, women are often secluded within structures (Figure 8.29) and wear veils or head coverings. Purdah is less strict in central and southern India, but even there, separation between unrelated men and women is maintained in public spaces. In general, low-caste Hindus do not observe this custom, but that is changing. In recent decades, as some low-status households have increased their incomes, they have adopted purdah as a sign of their rising wealth.

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Purdah practices have influenced the architecture of South Asia. Homes are often in walled compounds that seclude kitchens and laundries as women’s spaces. In grander homes, windows to the street are usually covered with lattice screens, known as jalee, that allow in air and light but shield women from the view of outsiders.

Marriage, Motherhood, and Widowhood Throughout South Asia, most marriages are arranged by the parents of the prospective bride and groom. Particularly in wealthier, better-educated families, the wishes of the bride and groom are considered, but in some cases they are not (Figure 8.30). This is especially true of child marriage, when a young girl (often as young as 12 and in some places even younger) is married off to a much older man.

Usually a bride goes to live in her husband’s family compound, where she becomes a source of domestic labor for her mother-in-law. Most brides work at domestic tasks for many years until they have produced enough children to have their own crew of small helpers, at which point they gain some prestige and a measure of autonomy.

Motherhood in South Asia determines much about a woman’s status within her community. A woman’s power and mobility increase when she has grown children and becomes a mother-in-law herself. On the other hand, in some communities, the death of a husband, regardless of cause, is a disgrace to a woman and can completely deprive her of all support and even of her home, children, and reputation. Widows may be ritually scorned and blamed for their husband’s death. Widows of higher caste rarely remarry, and in some areas, they become bound to their in-laws as household labor or may be asked to leave the family home. Most simply become marginalized “aunties” in extended families and help with household duties of all sorts.

Dowry and Violence Against Females A dowry is a sum of money paid by the bride’s family to the groom’s family at the time of marriage. Dowries originated as an exchange of wealth between Muslim landowners or high-caste families that practiced purdah. With her ability to work reduced by purdah, a woman was considered a liability for the family that took her in. Changing dowry customs appear to be a cause of the growing incidence of various kinds of domestic violence against females in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.

Until the last several decades, only wealthy families gave the groom a dowry—in this case, a substantial sum that symbolized the family’s wealth, meant to give a daughter a measure of security in her new family.

Ironically, the increases in affluence and education have reinforced the custom of dowry and made it much more common for all families. As more men became educated, their families felt that their diplomas increased their worth as husbands and gave them the power to demand larger and larger dowries. Soon, the practice spread through lower-caste families wanting to upgrade their status. Now the dowries they must pay to get their daughters married can cripple poor families. A village proverb captures this dilemma: “When you raise a daughter, you are watering another man’s plant.”

As countries in South Asia have moved toward greater respect for political freedoms, the status of women in the region has risen. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have all had female heads of state (prime ministers) in the past. However, it is important to note that all of these women were either wives or daughters of previous heads of state. Women have been notably less successful in local elections, and at the parliamentary level Indian and Sri Lankan women remain very poorly represented (Table 8.2).

Source: Women in National Parliaments, Inter-Parliamentary Union Web site at: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm

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The very low percentage of women in India’s parliament inspired a confederation of Muslim and Hindu women’s groups to lobby for legislation that would temporarily (for a 15-year trial period) reserve one-third of the seats in the lower house of Parliament and in state assemblies for women. Such one-third quotas are already in place in Pakistan (19.5 percent), Nepal (33.2 percent), and Bangladesh (19.7), but are so far close to being met only in Nepal.

If recent voter turnout and political activism trends continue, as discussed earlier in this chapter, there is likely to be a major improvement in female representation in the region’s national parliaments and in local offices.

Women and the Taliban in Afghanistan Women in Afghanistan have frequently suffered brutal repression since a conservative Islamist movement, the Taliban, gained control of the government there in the mid-1990s. Prior to that time, rights for women in Afghanistan were slowly but steadily improving, and upper-class women had many freedoms; they could dress in Western styles and they had the right to attend gender-integrated university courses. The Taliban support strict and radical interpretations of Islamic law, forcing females, including urban professional women, to live in seclusion. In regions where the Taliban retain control, girls and women are not allowed to work outside the home or attend school. In virtually all parts of the country, despite the decline of Taliban control, women must wear a heavy, completely concealing garment, called a burqa (or burka), whenever they are out of the house. (Men also must follow a dress code, though a less restrictive one.) Although the Taliban were driven from official power in November of 2001, they maintain control of the rural southern provinces and mountainous zones near Pakistan, where cultural and religious conservatism continues to adversely affect Afghan women. Even efforts to provide women and girls with a basic education, such as that described in the following vignette about Radio Sahar, run into hostility, and oftentimes violence.

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189. REPORT: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE WIDESPREAD IN AFGHANISTAN

190. FRONTRUNNER DOCUMENTARY TELLS STORY OF AFGHAN POLITICIAN WHO INSPIRES WOMEN

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Men and the Taliban in Afghanistan The extreme repression of male individuality under the Taliban bears recognition for the hardships it causes. Hypermasculine societies, such as that of the Taliban, tend to repress creativity and emotional sensitivity in males, and that repression can lead to closed minds and even violence toward others, particularly women. Nevertheless, despite the many expressions of hypermasculinity in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere in this region, there is also a long history of alternative expressions of gender (see Figure 8.30C).