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In the first days of independence, extremist Moslem traditionalists in Lahore and surrounding areas grabbed unveiled women, shaved their heads and spat upon them. Shocked by these indignities, a group of progressive army officers began using their own unveiled wives and daughters as decoys to catch the fanatics. Begum Khatidja G.A. Khan is Deputy Minister for Social Services in West Pakistan. Says she: "The mullahs cannot make time stand still. We must be affected by the changing world." Said a Karachi newspaperman last week. "The Pakistani male has had it—from all four wives." When in 1954 then Prime Minister Mohammed Ali took a second wife, irate women stoned his car. Throughout the country, women are stepping out into a bright new world of universities and industry, of monthly paychecks and partnership in the home, of planned parenthood and Max Factor makeup. In the red-light districts of some larger cities the veil, instead of being the hallmark of respectability, is now worn chiefly by harlots as protective coloration.
Veils & Cadillacs. In other areas, there is uncomfortable compromise. Along the blazing coast of the Persian Gulf, in the oil-rich sheikdoms of Kuwait, Bahrein and Oman, are some of the most splendid private homes that imported U.S. and European architects can provide. Air conditioners purr in every room, doors slide open at the touch of a button. But the voice of the Prophet is still heard and obeyed throughout the land. When all the girls in a school in Kuwait rebelliously burned their shroudlike abas, the Sheik of Kuwait was shocked, made it a crime to appear in public without them.
In Kuwait rich husbands and wives may arrive at parties together in their air-conditioned Cadillac, but they separate promptly. The women repair to the haramlik, remove their abas, and spend the evening chatting and sipping soft drinks clad in the latest New York or Paris fashions. The men go off to the salamlik to dine, exchange stories and fret about the price of oil. When the party is over, a servant notifies a woman guest that her husband is ready. She dons her veil and shroud, thanks her hostess and departs without ever seeing her host. But next day she may slip out in her car, doff her aba as soon as she is beyond sight of the town and take the wheel herself for a drive to the beach.
Through a Lattice. Among the least emancipated are the uncounted millions of Africa's "Black Moslems." By no coincidence, they are also the least developed politically. In Nigeria most Moslems are so strict they regard the rest of their co-religionists except the Saudi Arabians as backsliding apostates. Women are not even allowed in the presence of a judge; they must speak through a lattice in the wall to a court attendant, who relays their statements to the court.