The Women's Courtyard
Published on 2. October 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-14-313806-8 (ISBN)
Description
A feminist classic of Partition literature translated by Booker Prize-winning translator Daisy Rockwell
Set in the turbulent decade of the 1940s, The Women's Courtyard provides an inverted perspective on the Partition. Mastur's novel gives expression to the preoccupations of the women in the courtyard, fighting different battles with loud voices. The novel follows a Muslim girl, Aliya, and her family, about and around the climax of the Independence struggle. While the national struggle rages on the street, Aliya, Aunty and the residents of the courtyard are tethered hopelessly to their own problems of life and death. The Women's Courtyard is an experience in suffocation. Within the strict religious and social framework of a rigid Muslim family, there is a purdah between Aliya and the rest of the world.
Set in the turbulent decade of the 1940s, The Women's Courtyard provides an inverted perspective on the Partition. Mastur's novel gives expression to the preoccupations of the women in the courtyard, fighting different battles with loud voices. The novel follows a Muslim girl, Aliya, and her family, about and around the climax of the Independence struggle. While the national struggle rages on the street, Aliya, Aunty and the residents of the courtyard are tethered hopelessly to their own problems of life and death. The Women's Courtyard is an experience in suffocation. Within the strict religious and social framework of a rigid Muslim family, there is a purdah between Aliya and the rest of the world.
Reviews / Votes
It is a novel that deserves much greater notice than it has received so far. It is a good thing that Daisy Rockwell, a knowledgeable and committed translator of Urdu and Hindi, has chosen to bring this truly great novel... to the wider world through her English translation. -- Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, acclaimed author of 'The Mirror of Beauty'More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
356 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-313806-8 (9780143138068)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Khadija Mastur (Author)
Khadija Mastur (1927-82) was a renowned and award-winning Urdu writer from Pakistan, famous for her novels and short stories. She is best remembered for her novel Aangan, published in Penguin Classics as The Women's Courtyard.
Kamila Shamsie (Foreword By)
Kamila Shamsie is the author of eight novels, which have been translated into over 30 languages. Her novels include Home Fire (2018) which won the Women's Prize for Fiction and was long listed for the Man Booker Prize, Burnt Shadows which won the Premio Boccaccio in Italy, and A God in Every Stone which won the Anisfield-Wolf Award. She grew up in Karachi, has an MFA from the University of Manchester in Amherst, and now lives in London.
Daisy Rockwell (Translator)
Daisy Rockwell is an artist, writer, and Hindi-Urdu translator living in Vermont. She is a recipient of the Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award and her translations have been honored with The International Booker Prize, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation the MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Translation of a Literary Work, and the Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation. Her novel Alice Sees Ghosts and Mixed Metaphors, her collection of poems about translation, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury India, and her memoir Our Friend, Art is forthcoming from Pushkin Press (UK) in 2027.
Khadija Mastur (1927-82) was a renowned and award-winning Urdu writer from Pakistan, famous for her novels and short stories. She is best remembered for her novel Aangan, published in Penguin Classics as The Women's Courtyard.
Kamila Shamsie (Foreword By)
Kamila Shamsie is the author of eight novels, which have been translated into over 30 languages. Her novels include Home Fire (2018) which won the Women's Prize for Fiction and was long listed for the Man Booker Prize, Burnt Shadows which won the Premio Boccaccio in Italy, and A God in Every Stone which won the Anisfield-Wolf Award. She grew up in Karachi, has an MFA from the University of Manchester in Amherst, and now lives in London.
Daisy Rockwell (Translator)
Daisy Rockwell is an artist, writer, and Hindi-Urdu translator living in Vermont. She is a recipient of the Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award and her translations have been honored with The International Booker Prize, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation the MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Translation of a Literary Work, and the Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation. Her novel Alice Sees Ghosts and Mixed Metaphors, her collection of poems about translation, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury India, and her memoir Our Friend, Art is forthcoming from Pushkin Press (UK) in 2027.