Purdah And The Practice Of Foot-Binding During The Song Dynasty

The Bookseller of Kabul, by Åsne Seierstad, depicted an Afghanistan household and their lives. She told the story about the patriarch of the home, Sultan Khan, and his life, about the travels of his children, about his sisters and brothers, and about his wives. She talked about life in Afghanistan, the rule of the Taliban, and most importantly and prominently, the oppression of females. Throughout the book, countless examples of female subjugation appeared. Daughters had no say in their marriages, women were not allowed to go anywhere without a burka, and they had no say in family decisions.

Women controlled many of the in house affairs, such as dealing with servants, family resources, and money. In terms of authority, a man’s mother and wife were treated with a higher level of respect than other women. Although, throughout both dynasties, when a women entered marriagehood, she became part of her husband's family; the women were also not able to obtain their dowry. During the Song Dynasty, confucian beliefs and social norms were much more present. Surrounding women, confucian beliefs generally say a women should stay at home and had the lion’s share of work. The custom of footbinding throughout the Song Dynasty further depressed women's role and social standing. Footbinding began at the higher class and elite; the custom was in place to make womens feet smaller and more attractive. This was a painful process of binding feet with cloth to achieve beauty and luxury, which became so socially acceptable that it was even forced by many parents onto their daughters. The fear was not being able to find a husband if the daughter had big feet. Over time, the status of women negatively declined between each dynasty.

Today in the post –Taliban era, women still struggle with their rights. Resolutions were produced and rights for women have advanced since September 11th but in order to move forward, much work needs to be done. Hundreds of years of repression for Afghan women will take a lot longer than a few years to actually revolutionize. There is violence towards women that are not practicing traditions customs and fear retaliations from the Taliban. Customs are difficult to change as well as government policies. (Bora Laskin Law). In Afghanistan, religious and cultural values, politics, and an uncertain acting government have played a major part in the struggle for women’s rights.

Beauty of a woman was very important to men because it often showed wealth. Footbinding was a cruel way to show a woman’s beauty in Ancient China, especially during the Song dynasty. It is thought that foot binding began in around 900 AD during the Tang dynasty and continued until 1911 when it was finally banned. "The practice of binding feet was originally introduced about a thousand years ago, allegedly by a concubine of the emperor. Not only was the sight of women hobbling on tiny feet considered erotic, men would also get excited playing with bound feet, which were always hidden in embroidered silk shoes” (Wild Swans) Footbinding was considered very attractive and was very common. Many times, a girl who did not have bound feet were rejected by

This created fear in many women’s eyes. They knew that if their husband or any man in reality, caught them not wearing the burka, or exposing their feet or skin, they would be beaten. That said, at the same time they knew that wearing this ‘mask’ would create headaches and claustrophobic feelings (Lacayo). What the Taliban knew, was that despite this undermining of rights, it would take some effort to establish enough individuals to create pandemonium towards their power. Women could not rise together against the Taliban, without being able to actually participate in policies fighting for their cause.

According to Mackie (1996: 1001) the practice of foot binding spread from the imperial palace, transmitting down through the classes until it was nearly universally adopted. Thus, foot binding can be seen as symbolising one's status. Foot binding came to symbolise gentility, and it was only the absolute lowest of the lower class who were the exception to the convention. Such destitute individuals could not afford for female family members to be foot-bound when their manual labour was needed (Mackie 1996: 1001). However, to avoid such disgrace, many poor families preferred to “struggle along for a precarious living, bringing up their daughters with small feet” (Doolittle 1865: 201). This is in keeping with Veblen's (1934) view that foot binding is a costly display of a family's wealth (Mackie 1996: 1002). Likewise in Africa, female mutilation reportedly spread partly due to individuals wanting to emulate their higher status neighbours who had already adopted the practice (Mackie 1996: 1004). In addition to symbolising wealth, Mackie suggests that female mutilation symbolises a family's commitment to values of purity and chastity (Mackie 1996: 1000, 1008). Given the costs and risks associated with female mutilation, that a family would choose to commit to the practice shows how willing they are to ensure that males can be confident in terms of paternity. With this intention, female mutilation can be seen as symbolising a female's purity and future fidelity (Mackie 1996:

When girls were school age their feet began bending to make them smaller. Their feet were swathe in bandages and drawn towards their heels which caused the bones to break creating a small 3 inch foot. Unfortunately, because of this custom many girls had complication which caused them to have infections, paralysis and some even died because of this gruesome tradition. The Chinese thought that this tradition of binding feet would give a young lady of the affluent class the opportunity of getting a good husband. The lower class and peasants did not divulge in this tradition because the women were needed to work in the

Under Ottoman rule, women “faced legal and social disadvantages”, common to that of previous times. Certain restrictions often forced seclusion and viewing amongst women of all castes. Evidently, women were subordinated to their fathers and husbands in the household (AP world textbook). Likewise, throughout Mughal rule, the position of women, for the most part, faltered, subjecting them to many disadvantages in each sect of life. This came at the hands of patriarchy, polygamy, the practice of Sati (the burning of a widow on her husband’s grave), child marriages, and purdah (the physical seclusion of women in Muslim societies). (Somali, Religious and Social conditions of Society during Mughal Rule) Although low in status, many women in either society gained importance as the dynasty aged and under the rule of specific leaders. For example, this was evident in Akbar’s rule as he even went as far as to outlaw Sati. These contrasting social structures and gender roles all play into their individual history, as well as world history.

With this in mind one can see how maintaining family connection in Afghanistan is the best way to reach success. Men and women have different roles within these households as well. Ultimately their actions bring honor or shame onto their family based off of these roles, for instance while men work to provide income, women receive great honor through being a good wife and mother (Fluri, 2011). These methods gaining honor or shame often stem from their Muslim religion which carries over into their social lives. Afghan women typically wore long baggy clothing such as burqas as they are modest and provided them with a sense of spatial privacy (Fluri, 2011). They also wore their clothing such as a hijab is seen necessary as a sign of respect to their god as the people around them (Fluri, 2011). They also also hold power within the household through social networking for her family, giving her the responsibility to extend the family contacts through this manner and control who the family is associated with (Fluri, 2011). Women would traditionally gather in places void of men forming their own social sphere to better themselves and their families(Schütte,2014). Women even sometimes marry for the sake of creating a permanent connection to another family. All of these concepts are completely foreign to westerners as we don’t socialize in this manner, but even if we don’t except their social norms, that doesn’t give us a right to critique it.

Khaled Hosseini presents the struggle Afghan women go through every day by discussing honour, marriage and the place of women in society in Afghanistan.

Finally her sibling Second Brother went to their mother and told her to stop. Her mother did not want to hurt Yu-i, but felt that if Yu-i did not have beautiful bound feet, she would not find a suitable husband. Only when Second Brother promised to take care of Yu-i should she need to be taken care of did their mother relent. Though her mother relented, many people, especially the elders, thought that bound feet were still necessary to find a good husband. Although Yu-i was happy with her bound feet, many others had mixed feelings about them. This added to the difficulty of finding herself as Yu-i grew up and tried to become her own person.

In the article, Ko highlights the many misconceptions modern people have on footbinding such as keeping a woman’s foot bound, kept them in a hobbled and subservient domestic state or as sex objects . Afterwards, she states that our “certainties may turn out to be dead wrong” suggesting to readers that she is going to shine a positive light on footbinding. Ko goes more in depth about the three things men believed footbinding was, and why the tradition of binding ones foot was important at that time. The Chinese believed that wearing shoes differentiated and distinguished them from beasts as well as savages

If a woman displayed herself in a sexy manner, as Sanaubar did, she would be considered "dishonorable" (8). If an unwed woman held a conversation with a man, she would be seen as a "lochak" (146), or in other words a brazen girl. The honor of a girl mattered so much because virtuous girls brought in respectable "suitable suitors" (148), and one of the most important things an Afghani girl needed was a husband. This cultural belief gave men an overbearing advantage once they married. The men essentially controlled how their wives lived their lives. The prime example in this case would be General Taheri, who had many opinions on how women should behave. The General forbade his wife to sing in public because he thought it was a job for people with "lesser reputations" (177), he didn't "approve of women drinking alcohol," (183), and was constantly worried about the public perception of his family. Baba, to some extent also represented these views. He talked about losing ones honor in a very somber manner, and believed that a man's honor rested in the "chastity of a wife. Or a daughter." (145)

Purdah system came to be strictly observed. Women education was almost banned. More and more sense of conservatism about women increased. She continued to hold not only low status in and outside the home and does not worsen their position at this

When coupled with the line "the bound feet" (Piercy, 20), the poem appears as if it were a comment solely about the injustice forced upon Chinese women from 934 until 1949. Foot binding is a painful process which includes breaking all of the toes and arch of the foot to grossly alter the shape of the foot, so that the foot, when mature would be no more than four inches long.  The first break was usually made when a girl was three to five years old, then the feet were wrapped in yards of cloth to prevent them from growing or reshaping. The pain from the initial break was nothing compared to the enduring pain the women experienced for the rest of their lives. The pain was caused by the drastically deformed feet. (Chinese foot binding- lotus shoes)