Parda ("Curtain")

This piece depicts many of the freedoms traditionally denied to the majority of the female population in India throughout most of the 1900s and reserved specifically for the elite, modern woman who could afford to step outside of the "parda" system. I am grateful that today, a lot of these restrictions on the role of a traditional woman are continuously being challenged and overturned. This piece honors that tradition, putting into flames the patriarchy of the past and replacing it with freedoms of the new.

Historical context: The parda ("curtain") system—rooted in centuries of patriarchal tradition—symbolized both physical and societal seclusion. But in the years following India’s independence in 1947, a subtle shift began. By the 1950s, urban women, especially from elite and educated circles, started to reclaim public space—sometimes in secret, sometimes boldly. They drove cars, smoked cigarettes, attended cinema halls, and engaged in social life, often as acts of quiet defiance.