Twilight of the Sultanate c17.s5.19

c17.s5.19

Whatever may be said in favour or otherwise of the customs of Satī and Jauhar, a society in which female infanticide, child-marriage, Parda, Jauhar and Satī existed side by side, was not a happy one for women. It is not surprising therefore that the birth of a female child was felt like the advent of a calamity, and Amīr Khusru's lament over the birth of a daughter and his many pieces of advice to her in his poem *Lailā Majnū*, make interesting reading.⁶⁸ In *Afzalul Favaid* Nizāmuddīn Auliyā has been cited as saying: "It would be the day of Resurrection (Qiāmat) when women will ride horses or walk about in the streets . . . . Great harm would be done when women would get freedom".⁶⁹