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Glite Dictionary
🚪 Social isolation 🧕 Seclusion of women 🪟 A screen or curtain
purdah

purdah

1 9.9
A state of social separation, often used to keep people out of public view
  • noun
  • /ˈpərdə/
  • Indian
translation icon : purdah
  • In some cultures, purdah is practiced to maintain modesty and privacy for women in public spaces.

Examples

  • You gotta shake yourself out of this self-imposed purdah you've been in ever since you split up with your precious Mark Darcy.

    Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)

  • The woman on the ground raised one hand and placed it across her face as if the sun had become too strong for her or, maybe, Taylor thought, in an instinctive purdah from his stranger's gaze.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Many women observe purdah by wearing concealing clothing and limiting their interactions with men.

  • The village adhered to traditional purdah, ensuring that women remained separate from men during special events.

Synonyms

sex segregation
vspurdah
1 7.0

The practice of separating men and women into different places or groups

emphasizes women's seclusion and hiding from public life rather than simple separation
purdah tradition
vspurdah
  • Indian
9.9

Women staying out of public view in some communities so men who are not relatives do not see them

is the broader practice name for keeping women physically or socially isolated

Compounds

purdah tradition
  • Indian
9.9

Women staying out of public view in some communities so men who are not relatives do not see them

How Isolated

purdah
  • Indian
1 9.9
isolation
172 3.7
exclusion
64 4.2
separation
89 2.6
integration
55 4.1

Surface Forms

purdah singular
purdahs plural

Etymology

Purdah comes from Persian pardah meaning 'curtain', and over time the word grew to mean any kind of social or institutional seclusion. So today purdah can mean both the traditional practice of keeping women private and, more generally, a state of being kept 'behind a curtain' from public life.