Summary
Sister Sara continues to tell Sultana the story of how the men came to be imprisoned in zenanas, explaining how the men now reside there all the time and that the women, instead of calling the spaces where the men are kept zenanas, refer to them as mardanas, a reference to the male form of purdah. Sultana is initially confused as to how the women manage to run society effectively without filling standard “male” jobs, such as policemen or government workers, but Sister Sara tells Sultana that such roles are unnecessary because ever since the men went into the mardanas, there has been no crime in the city.
Sultana is amused, thinking about how her friends back home would take delight in hearing about Ladyland, where the men do all the housework, cleaning, and raising children. She asks Sister Sara how they manage to maintain land and agricultural production. Sister Sara explains that they plow the lands with electricity and use air travel to transport materials and goods from one place to another without using manual labor, which means they need no trains or railway system. This detail means that along with Ladyland having no violence or crime, there are also no rail or vehicle accidents.
Sister Sara continues, going on to explain how the women have invented a large water balloon that supplies water to the land and allows the women to produce engineered rainfall without experiencing floods or thunderstorms. The women’s main goal is to extract as much as they can from the land while also cohabitating with it—the Queen even wants to turn all of Ladyland into a large, expansive garden. The women’s staple diet consists mainly of fruit. Sister Sara shows Sultana all of the material comforts the women have in their homes, such as plumbing and irrigation.
Sultana wonders what religion the women subscribe to. Sister Sara explains that they follow a religion that is based on love and truth, and that when someone lies or breaks away from the tenets of their religion, they simply ask the offender to leave—the women do not believe in capital punishment or violence. If the offender repents, they are allowed back into Ladyland. Sister Sara also explains how the women treat all of their relatives, regardless of distance or status (brother, second cousin, etc.) as sacred, which Sultana regards as a sign of how the women embody values of purity.
Sultana asks to meet the Queen and Sister Sara agrees to take her to the Queen's garden. Sister Sara assembles a flying car by attaching hydrogen balls, seats, wings, and a control panel to a wooden plank. The hydrogen balls are used to overcome gravity, while the wings supply electricity so that the car is able to fly and hover. Sister Sara takes Sultana to the Queen’s garden, where Sultana sees the Queen walking with her four-year-old daughter and her maids of honor.
Sultana is introduced to the Queen; she remarks how she is received without any form of royal ceremony or ritual, as the Queen greets her with a simple “Halloo” and addresses her informally. Sultana is honored and excited to meet the Queen. The Queen and Sultana begin to chat, and the Queen, like Sister Sara, continues to tell Sultana about the society of Ladyland and how it is run. For example, although the Queen does not oppose trading with other countries, it is difficult for Ladyland to find any country to trade with since there are so few countries where women are not kept in zenanas and are free to come and trade with the women in Ladyland. The women of Ladyland do not like to trade with men, since men have lower morals and are inconvenient to trade with.
The Queen continues, telling Sultana how the women refuse to conquer or seek out any additional land, even for precious resources like brilliant diamonds, such as the “Koh-i-Noor,” a diamond that was in possession of the Mughal rulers of India. Nor do they attempt to depose a ruler from his “Peacock Throne,” a famous jewel-encrusted throne that was built for the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Instead, the women seek to find resources and wealth in the “ocean of knowledge,” where they are able to discover Nature’s gifts without encroaching on other people or using violence.
After concluding her conversation with the Queen, Sultana leaves the Queen’s garden and travels around Ladyland visiting their universities, factories, laboratories, and scientific observatories. When she gets back into the hover car, she finds herself unable to stay awake and falls asleep—only to awaken in her own bedroom, in India.
Analysis
As the story concludes, Sultana learns more about the idyllic, progressive nature of Ladyland’s society. Ladyland and its institutional structures—the justice system, agricultural production and manufacture, transportation—are all designed in opposition to the ways in which traditional patriarchal society existed at the time of the story’s composition. There is no bureaucratic structure that enforces punishment, operating instead under a pacifist ideology that believes in dispensing justice without physical force.
Likewise, the women’s relationship to the land is equally as radical; rather than extracting maximum resources from the natural land using physical force, they treat the land with respect and focus on allowing it to bloom, as exhibited by the Queen’s desire to cultivate the land into something beautiful: a garden. All of the women’s technological innovations are used to craft a harmonious relationship between them and the land they inhabit—a drastic counterpoint to the possibility for destruction that science fiction often focuses on through the “dystopian” genre. Rather than regressing and utilizing technology for evil, the women eliminate the possibility of cruelty by segregating men and only using it for good, thus creating a utopia.
Additionally, the ways that the women interact are also indicative of Ladyland’s progressive ethos. When Sultana and the Queen meet, the Queen greets her with “Halloo,” departing from standard royal diction or any expectation for formalities. The Queen uses common language; her kingdom, and she herself, reject the notion that there must be a class hierarchy and division between a ruler and her subjects. Instead, Ladyland functions under an overarching belief in equality between women. Without men, women are able to create a society where equality reigns, rather than power, exploitation, or inequality.
The Queen’s speech also introduces a critique of Indian rule and territorial expansion. The two items that the Queen references—the Koh-i-Noor and the Peacock Throne—are both items that were present in Indian society and symbolized extravagant monarchical wealth. The Koh-i-Noor diamond, which translates to “Mountain of Light,” was part of the Mughal dynasty, as was the Peacock Throne, a throne covered in jewels. The Mughal empire, which reigned in India from the 16th to the 19th century, relied on military warfare in order to sustain its power and displays of wealth, which included the Taj Mahal, built under ruler Shah Jahan.
By stating that her kingdom does not seek these riches, the Queen displays Ladyland’s rejection of the pursuit of material wealth and luxury. Instead, her kingdom is focused on scientific innovation that facilitates good and allows the women to prosper independent of patriarchal structures and trade with external patriarchal societies. Ladyland, unlike male-dominated societies, is able to evolve by utilizing science and technology to establish peace and general wellbeing, without oppressing other women or destroying the land around them.
Sultana’s slumber in the final sentences of the story reminds the reader that her experience in Ladyland, as vivid as it was, was still only a dream, thus reminding the reader that Ladyland is still only a fictional ideal. Sultana is forced to return to patriarchal society; Ladyland remains an inaccessible, imaginary place, despite its many benefits and idyll.
