The World's Worst Place for Women?
So many possible "winners" but the answer is Pakistan.
-----FOREIGN POLICY
What the Waters Washed Away
The rural, conservative refugees from Pakistan’s floods have not only lost their homes, but also their entire way of life.
By Rania Abouzeid
September 17, 2010
CHARSADDA, Pakistan-Zeynat wipes her tears away with the edge of her donated, cream-colored dupatta. Her family was separated shortly after raging floodwaters destroyed her modest, mud-brick home, and it has been well over a month since she last saw her three teenage daughters. For the past week, Zeynat and her mother-in-law have been sharing a tent with her friend and former neighbor, Bach Sultan, and four of Sultan's children, in a makeshift settlement here in Charsadda, in the socially conservative and insurgency-plagued Khyber Pakhtunkwa province bordering Afghanistan.
Zeynat's tent, which lies just feet away from the dozens of others pitched alongside Charsadda's Sugar Mill mosque, is sweltering inside. The front and back tent flaps are kept open in the hope of attracting a breeze, but they merely serve to expose the women to the view of passersby. The women say that custom prevents them from idly sitting outside. The camp's proximity to the mosque means that the building's bathrooms are available for use by the flood victims. This ensures them a modicum of privacy absent from many other camps, which lack sanitation or rely on outdoor toilets.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/09/17/what_the_waters_washed_away
See also:
Foreign Policy
New attacks stun Pakistan
By Imtiaz Gul
September 10, 2010
http://www.imtiazgul.com/Sep_10_2010.html
http://www.imtiazgul.com/
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
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