1. Perveen Mistry is in a historically groundbreaking role: she is
representing the rights of female clients, some of whom have never
before had any access to legal protection because of religious law,
limited education, or patriarchal restrictions that greatly disadvantage
them. Perveen is the perfect female lawyer to represent women’s rights,
since she herself has had terrible legal problems and has seen how
frustrating it is to have no power under the law. How much
moredifficultiPerveen’sjobthan a contemporaryfemalelawyer’s?Did any of
her encounters particularly frustrate or anger you as a reader? Did she
face problems that you couldn’t imagine a lawyer today facing? On the
other hand, have things not changed as much as we think?
2. What do you make of Perveen’s last meeting with Cyrus? How would you
have felt in her position?
3. The difference between "modern" and "orthodox" religiosity is an
important one in this book. Perveen’s parents, the Mistrys, are depicted
as modern Parsis who educate their daughter and hope she will have a
career. The Sodawallas, meanwhile are orthodox Parsis who still obey
ancient purity laws that are now thought to be unhealthy and who expect
their new daughter-in-law to leave her education behind and be a
traditional housewife. The gap in the two families’ beliefs becomes
violent and heartbreaking. How has this conversation about religious
orthodoxy changed since the 1920s? How does it still relate to our
21st-century societies?
4. Why do you think Behnoush Sodawalla is so insistent that Perveen
isolate herself? What do you think are the real reasons behind her
strict Parsi traditionalism?
5. Meanwhile, in the Farid house in Bombay, the Muslim widows live in
purdah, another form of religious orthodoxy. How do the Muslim and Parsi
restrictions on women differ? How do they overlap? From each of the
Farid widows’ points of view, what would you say are the advantages and
disadvantages of living in purdah? Were you surprised by their decision
to leave purdah at the end of the book?
6. What role does class play in the novel? How different would Perveen’s
choices have been if she had not been from such a wealthy family? Do you
think she would have been more or less likely to marry Cyrus, or more or
less likely to leave him? What other choices of hers would have been
impossible if she had come from a poor or middle-class family?
7. Meanwhile, Perveen is very accepting of her best friend’s
homosexuality, but Alice’s parents are clearly not. How do you think
Alice’s situation might have been different if she had not been as
wealthy? How much advantage does she have as an expatriate? How do you
think the flowering women’s rights movement will affect her? Do you
think she’ll end up finding more freedom and happiness in India, as she
hopes, or do you think she will eventually find gender roles and
sexuality there to be just as stifling?