The Widows of Malabar Hill (Perveen Mistry, #1)

by Sujata Massey

Nestled alongside the British and Hindu and Muslim law offices were a significant number owned by members of her own religious community, the Indian-born Zoroastrians. Although Parsis accounted for just 6 percent of Bombay’s total inhabitants, they constituted one-third of its lawyers.

Iranis—the Zoroastrian immigrants who had come from the nineteenth century onward—prided themselves on running superlative bakeries and cafés serving cuisine influenced by their ancient homeland of Persia.

“Purdahnashins don’t speak with men,” Mustafa said as he came around with the silver teapot. “My mother and sisters didn’t close themselves in—but many of the wealthy do. Especially Hanafi Muslims.”

Therefore, ‘purdahnashins’ means ‘those who stay behind the veil.’”

The Englishwoman’s revelation that she’d been expelled at sixteen from Cheltenham Ladies’ College for having a girl in her bed had confounded Perveen. It was natural for female relatives and friends to sleep close together. But after Alice explained the longing she still felt for a long-ago classmate, Perveen understood how multifaceted relationships could be.

The boundaries communities drew around themselves seemed to narrow their lives—whether it was women and men, Hindus and Muslims, or Parsis and everyone else.

“Good thoughts, good words, good deeds is the Parsi credo; however, there is no monopoly on it.”