Purdah

One has to see the relationship of the sexes from inside the other culture. Most of us would condemn Islamic purdah where there is polygamy and a woman cannot go outdoors without a chaperone. She cannot even meet male relatives at home unchaperoned.

However I talked with two Hausa co-wives from Nigeria. They lived in Ealing and I speak their language. They told me that purdah was the best way for a woman. After all Hausa women are the only Nigerian ones kept in purdah so kept from having to do the farming.

When we first lived in Nigeria, south of the Muslim area, we would see the women going off to farm early in the morning. Men stayed at home. Women worked the land.