chadar
- noun
- Indian
- She draped a colorful chadar over her shoulders to match her traditional attire.
Examples
-
The woman wore a chadar to cover her head while attending the religious ceremony.
-
In the warm sun, she pulled her chadar closer to shield her face from the bright light.
-
The chadar, often mistakenly referred to in the West as a burqa, is a head-to-toe covering of Indian origin that has a mesh cloth over the facial area to allow the wearer to see and breathe.
Academic text (2002)
Synonyms
A large cloth some Muslim and Hindu women wear to cover their head and body, leaving the face visible
A large cloth women wrap over their head and shoulders
A large cloth women wear over their head and shoulders as a veil or shawl
A long headscarf that covers hair, neck, shoulders and hangs just above the waist
How Modest
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word chadar comes from the Persian word chādor and the Hindi/Urdu word chadar, both meaning 'sheet' or 'cover'. So a chadar is literally a 'sheet' used to cover the head and body, which is why it is a head covering or shawl.