A feminist classic of Partition literature in a newly revised translation by Booker Prize-winning translator Daisy Rockwell.
A Penguin ClassicSet in the turbulent decade of 1940s India,
The Women's Courtyard illuminates a unique perspective on the Partition. The novel follows the struggles of a Muslim family from the perspective of the youngest daughter, Aliya, during the years that lead to Independence. Mastur’s novel is conspicuously empty of the politicking and large national questions that played out, typically, in the arenas of men. Instead, it gives expression to the preoccupations of the women, whose lives are mostly circumscribed by the secluded courtyard of their home. As they deal with the poverty that engulfs the family as a direct result of the men's all-consuming passion for the Independence Movement, the women in the courtyard are left to run the household on shrinking means, and Aliya attempts to gain an education against all odds. Set within the strict religious and social framework of a once-prominent family,
The Women's Courtyard invites us into Aliya's suffocating world, where women are forced to contend with deteriorating conditions, as they try desperately to hold up the social structure that confines them.
A feminist classic of Partition literature translated by Booker Prize-winning translator Daisy Rockwell
Set in the turbulent decade of the 1940s, The Women's Courtyard provides an inverted perspective on the Partition. Mastur's novel gives expression to the preoccupations of the women in the courtyard, fighting different battles with loud voices. The novel follows a Muslim girl, Aliya, and her family, about and around the climax of the Independence struggle. While the national struggle rages on the street, Aliya, Aunty and the residents of the courtyard are tethered hopelessly to their own problems of life and death. The Women's Courtyard is an experience in suffocation. Within the strict religious and social framework of a rigid Muslim family, there is a purdah between Aliya and the rest of the world.
