Purdah or pardeh is the practice of concealing women from men. According to one definition:

Purdah is a curtain which makes sharp separation between the world of man and that of a woman, between the community as a whole and the family which is its heart, between the street and the home, the public and the private, just as it sharply separates society and the individual.

This takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes

Sex segregation

Sex segregation is the separation of people according to their sex.The term gender apartheid also has been applied to segregation of people by gender, implying that it is sexual discrimination...

, and the requirement for women to cover their bodies and conceal their form.

Purdah exists in various forms in the Muslim world

Muslim world

The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...

, India, and other cultures.

In the Muslim world, preventing women from being seen by men is closely linked to the concept of namus

Namus

Namus is the Arabic word of a concept of an ethical category, a virtue, in Middle Eastern patriarchal character...

.