Plural of chadar, a large shawl or sheet-like garment worn as an outer covering by some Muslim and South Asian women.
From Persian 'chador' or Hindi/Urdu 'chadar', meaning a large cloth or covering, adopted into English from South Asian and Middle Eastern language usage.
The chadar has been worn across an enormous geographic area for over a thousand years—from Persia to South Asia—and its various styles and materials tell the story of trade routes and cultural exchange across continents!
English plural of chadar; inherits the same Western Orientalist framing applied to the singular form, especially in 19th–20th-century ethnographic and colonial writing.
Same as chadar/chadarim: refer neutrally without assumption of oppression or liberation. Center the wearer's own perspective.
["head coverings","Islamic headscarves","chadars (when used as culturally specific term)"]
Women in Muslim-majority societies have reclaimed and theorized the chadar as choice, identity, and resistance. Amplify their scholarship.
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