How Gender Roles Influenced South Asian Architecture

Words by Hafsa Jehan Zaib

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This is a rare vintage poster from the night when the Sabri Brothers became the first ever South Asians to play at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1975. It was a special concert because it marked one of the earliest times Qawwali music was brought to a Western audience, long before Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan made it into a household name. The New York Times sent one of their reporters to review the performance - a white American man named John Rockwell. This would be Rockwell's first experience with Qawwali music and for him it would be "a long way from the polite boredom of so many Western concerts." Rockwell was in awe. He had never seen

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How Gender Roles Influenced South Asian Architecture

Gender, Privacy, and Power in South Asian Spaces

From behind delicate jalis (lattice screens), drawn pardahs (curtains), and shaded chanjigas (overhangs), within the cool confines of a private sehn (courtyard) or the intimate walls of a zanan khana (women’s quarters), South Asian homes have long concealed meanings beyond the visible.

The layout of zenana (women’s quarters) and mardana (men’s quarters), rooted in the grand havelis of the subcontinent, continues to echo through modern homes, mirroring deeply entrenched notions of gender, social hierarchy, and privacy. These spatial divisions, which historically governed the interaction between men and women, raise a crucial question: Do they continue to uphold religious and cultural traditions or do they limit social progress? While the chiks (bamboo blinds) and confined quarters symbolize modesty and protection, the debate around the zenana-mardana concept invites us to reconsider: do these traditional spaces serve us today, or are they relics of a past best left behind?