It is quite necessary to give a few words of introduction to the
following little story, as without it the meaning and drift of it would
be quite unintelligible to many British readers. Not all are aware that
it is the custom of Mohammedans of the upper classes to seclude their
women from sight; so that to allow the face to be seen by any man except
a husband or very near relative is accounted a shame and disgrace. This
custom is called “pardah,” and it has spread beyond the Mohammedans to
some of the Hindus, &c. A. L. O. E. has seen an old lady start from her
seat as if in great alarm, and hide herself behind a chair, because an
aged gentleman had chanced to come in sight. Sometimes sufferers are
shut out from receiving medical aid on account of pardah. At this moment
pardah is one of the greatest obstacles to baptism being received by one
whom we believe to be quite convinced of the truth of Christianity, and
whose husband is a noble-hearted Christian. Sometimes pardah is actually
kept up by native _converts_; and this is a grievous hindrance to them,
and besets their path with needless difficulties. There is in our
mission church a little pardah room, indeed, in which women can, if they
wish it, hear unseen; but how can a woman in pardah ever share the Holy
Communion—how can she be actively useful amongst the heathen around her!
Pardah is the napkin under which a few native converts would hide their
talent, and one cannot but regard it rather as a kind of _fashion_, a
piece of Oriental worldliness, than a token of superior delicacy of mind.
A woman actually in the act of hiding her face will sometimes shock our
feelings of refinement in some other way.
Another little explanation is necessary. The word “pardah”[56] has two
meanings: one the state of seclusion which has been described; the other,
the _curtain_ which is the emblem of seclusion. Any curtain in an English
lady’s dwelling is a pardah, though she is never “in pardah” herself.
* * * * *
Waziren, a merchant’s wife, came to visit Maryam, the wife of a moonshee.
Both of the women had been baptized as Christians, but the heart of
Waziren still clung to many of the customs of her people; she retained
prejudices in which she had been brought up from her childhood. Waziren
never came to church, lest she should break pardah; and would have
thought it unseemly to meet at a meal even the dearest friend of her
husband. Waziren cared not to learn to read; her only pleasure was in her
jewels, and in gossip, in which her favourite topic always was the faults
of her neighbours. It was for the sake of talking over news that Waziren
now took her seat on the _charpai_ (low bed) of Maryam.
“Are the tidings true,” asked Waziren, “that your next-door neighbour,
Shadi Shah, arrived last night from England, a week before he was
expected?”
“It is quite true,” Maryam replied. “It was a great joy to Fatima to see
her husband again after a six months’ absence.”
“A great joy, was it?” said Waziren sneeringly; and she smiled an
unpleasant smile. “I should have thought that Fatima would have cared
little if the absence of her husband had been one of six years, instead
of six months.”
Maryam looked almost angry, for she saw that evil thoughts were in the
mind of her neighbour. “Fatima is a good and faithful wife,” she replied.
“Had Shadi Shah remained away for six years, he would, on his return,
have found her just the same as if he had never left her. Do you not
know, O Waziren! that Fatima has kept in strict pardah all the time of
her husband’s absence?”
“In pardah!” exclaimed the astonished Waziren. “Now, for once, O Maryam!
I have found you uttering words of untruth! I happen to know that Fatima
has been to church every week since her husband’s departure. I am sure
that she on foot has visited friends; nay, I have even heard that she has
taught in a school!” Waziren looked duly indignant and shocked at such a
breach of Oriental customs, though quite aware that Maryam did all the
things which she professed to think so strange.
“Fatima has done all this,” replied Maryam, smiling; “and yet she has
kept strict pardah.”
“You amaze me!” cried the merchant’s wife.
“Perhaps you have never heard that in Fatima’s house there is a very fine
pardah, beautiful and perfect, though of great antiquity,” said Maryam.
“This pardah is more valuable than any shawl or Cashmere, or piece of
golden embroidery, crusted all over with jewels!”
“I think that you must have lost your wits!” exclaimed Waziren, more
and more astonished. “I know no woman with fewer jewels than Fatima.
I am sure that she cannot love her stingy husband. If she has such a
splendid pardah, she never had it from him. Pray, have you ever seen this
wonderful pardah?”
“Yes; and I have one just like it,” replied Maryam, laying her hand on a
book beside her, which Waziren, though she could not read it, knew to be
the Bible.
“You talk in riddles!” cried the merchant’s wife.
Maryam opened the Holy Book. First, she found out in the Old Testament
the seventh commandment; and then she turned over to the New Testament
and read aloud: _I will therefore that women adorn themselves in modest
apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or
gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing
godliness) with good works_ (1 Tim. ii. 9, 10). Then from another place
the Christian woman read: _Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your
own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they may be won by the
conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation
coupled with fear_ (1 Peter iii. 1). And then again Maryam found that
place where that word is written alike for men and women: _Follow peace
with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord_
(Heb. xii. 14). “Behold,” cried Maryam, closing the Bible, “here is the
pardah treasured in the house and heart of Fatima; and as long as she
keeps within it, the Christian wife requires no other!”