Women's Courtyard

A Penguin Classic

Set 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.