Zenana

Common card · No. 362084

A zenana (Persian: زنانه, "of the women" or "pertaining to women"; Urdu: زنانہ; Bengali: জেনানা; Hindi: ज़नाना) is the part of a house belonging to a Muslim family in the Indian subcontinent which is reserved for the women of the household. The zenana was a product of Indo-Islamic culture and was commonly found in aristocratic Muslim family homes. Due to prolonged interactions between Hindus and Muslims, upper-class Hindu households inclined to imitate élite cultural trends also embraced these designated spaces. The zenana were the inner rooms of a house where the women of the family lived and where men and strangers were not allowed to enter. The outer apartments for guests and men are called the mardana. Conceptually in those environments that practise purdah, it is the Indian subcontinent's equivalent of the harem. Christian missionaries were able to gain access to Indian girls and women through the zenana missions; female missionaries who had been trained as doctors and nurses were...

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