| Textiles are an ancestral craft in Rajasthan, northwest India, dominating the Chipa community of painters and dyers. Curcuma and pomegranate bark are used along with a knotting technique to dye the cloth yellow. The saris are then laid out in the sun to dry, soaked in a solution to fix the colors and, after being washed two or three more times and dried, they are ready to be sold. This traditional feminine garment hides an equally “traditional” role for women in society. Although customs have become less strict, once they are married, many Indian women often live “in purdah,” that is, closeted at home, for reasons of expediency. Almost 90 percent of marriages in India are still arranged, and advertisements in Sunday newspapers are still classified by caste. Divorced women and single mothers are so frowned upon that they do not even figure in official statistics.
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