ABSTRACT
The symbolic significance of the female seclusion pattern renders it almost impossible to transcend its limits without ado. The seclusion of women is a function of a family's value in an economic sense, but it also becomes indicative of their social worth or 'honour' in order that the higher the status-aspirations, especially among the lower middle classes, the more important the chastity of women becomes. Women were thus in a key position in the process of adaptation at the time of the western colonial power, as they are, again, in the contemporary world. While women appeared as more autonomous subjects in a new arena their roles as mothers and wives were simultaneously given a new emphasis and importance. While great pride is still taken in a positive group identity, exiled women are frequently forced to take primary responsibility for running the family while at the same time trying to make their humiliated husbands look good in public.
