“I maintain that the purdah system should not be done away with altogether, for it will upset the whole foundation of the Hindu principle of ‘dharm’ or how a woman should act and behave before she is called a good and honorable woman.  Sometimes, when a woman is given much freedom and liberty and is allowed to go wherever she pleases, she begins to take advantage of such opportunities and does those things which might bring disgrace to the family.  The question of education should not be brought up in connection with the purdah, for even the educated ladies are apt to fall in the same temptation as the uneducated ones when the purdah system is removed altogether.  The purdah system has done much to maintain the honor and respect of the higher class ladies.  The low class women who are always abroad working among men and in the midst of throngs of people are not educated at all and have as much freedom as their men have.  So we can conclude that the purdah system only exists among higher classes of people and those who care much for the honor and respect of their family.  The higher a family is the more it will be particular about this system.”

The following paragraph expresses the views of a Muhammadan Freshman: 

“Among us, that is the Muslims, purdah is very strict.  Ladies need purdah at present, for the men are not civilized enough.  Besides, the purdah system should be gradually abolished.  If too much freedom is given all at once, ladies won’t know how to behave and they will be an hindrance in further progress.  Education is at the back of progress.  Girls should first be educated and given liberty gradually.  Though we Muslim girls have come to Christian colleges and don’t observe purdah, yet we are very careful of how we should make the best of it and show a good example by our personality and behavior so that the people who criticize us may not have anything to say.  I think if all of us try hard to abolish this system it will take us at least twenty years to do it.  No matter what happens I don’t approve of ladies mixing very much with gentlemen.

“There are certainly many disadvantages in the purdah system.  For instance, it makes ladies quite helpless and dependent.  They cannot go out to get any thing or travel even if they are in great necessity.  They do not know the streets and roads, so they cannot run away to save their honor or life.  Men seem to become their right hand and feet.  They do not know, often, what is going on outside their homes and do not enjoy the beauty of nature, and live an uneventful life.  This seems to make the ladies lazy and they always keep planning marriages.  This is the chief reason of the early marriage of girls among the Muslims.  The girl herself has nothing to do, so they think it best for her to get married.”

With these it is interesting to compare the views of a Christian student, a young pastor’s wife, who along with the care of home and children is now receiving the higher education of which she was deprived in her schoolgirl days.