Village Journals
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Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Death or dishonour?
SHANGLA: Death or dishonour ? stark choice for survivors
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 18:47:19 -0500
November 19, 2005 Saturday Shawwal 16, 1426
SHANGLA: Death or dishonour ? stark choice for survivors
SHANGLA, Nov 18: With bitterly cold winter about to heap more suffering on
earthquake survivors camped in this mountainous region, Abdul Hameed faces
a stark choice: death or dishonour. Mr Hameed, who lost his home in last
month?s temblor, says he would rather his family die from the cold than
descend from the 10,000ft-high peak and risk being exposed to strangers at
relief camps in the disaster zone.
?We are Pukhtun people. For us, the women?s honour matters more than life,?
Mr Hameed, 28, told AFP at Meira tent camp, believed to be the biggest in
Shangla district.
He descended to the relief village to get blankets, food and medicines but
then returned to Koshgram village on Alai peak.
?What will I do with life if our women are dishonoured down in valley?
Clerics told people up on the hilltop that there is no respect for women
(down there),? he said.
He said his mother, wife, and sister remained in the mountains. ?We feel
safer with them in the hills,? he said.
A cleric told the survivors on the peak that fleeing the disaster-hit areas
was ?un-Islamic,? 35-year-old Bakht Taj, a survivor at the tent village,
said.
?I am not coming down simply because our women?s dignity will come under
threat. I know winter is very harsh. I have lost my home to the quake and I
know it is not possible to live in a tent in harsher cold weather,? he
said.
"But this is not a question of life. This is the question of our women?s
honour,? he said.
Relief officials have warned that around 40,000 survivors on the hilltop in
Alai area would risk death if they did not come down to the valley.
Aid officials have raised a tent city awaiting their arrival to see the
winter out, with snow expected to blanket the peak any day.
But for survivors in the conservative area, the question of honour is more
important than life or death.
Survivor Mian Sarfraz, from the same peak, has, however, registered his
wife and sisters at the village where Finnish charity World Church Service
and China have provided cold-proof tents, and Save the Children and the
United Nations Children?s Fund have arranged other facilities.
?We have been told by clerics that our women will be exposed to foreigners
in the tent village and their pictures will be taken,? Mr Sarfraz said.
But he claimed there was an ulterior motive behind the warnings.
?They are doing so on behalf of landlords who think no one will be left to
take care of their fields,? Mr Sarfraz, 40, told AFP after receiving a
Finland-made winter tent, complete with a stove to warm inhabitants.
Maj Shehzad Ibrahim of Pakistan Army said 307 families were registered at
the tent city, which could accommodate up to 20,000 families.
?They will come down. They cannot stay up there because it will be very
cold after snowfall,? he said.
?Women and children are particularly vulnerable to the winter,? said Tamur
Mueenuddin, health officer in Muzaffarabad for Unicef.
?Children because they don?t have the immunity system and women because in
traditional societies like these, they are rarely allowed out.
?If the husband is away from home through injury or illness, the women are
unlikely to go out and get help for the family. They become even less
empowered,? he said.
In Garhi Dupatta, aid workers feared many injured women would also prefer
death over seeking treatment at relief centres.
?I fear many women will prefer death over (breaking) traditions and customs
as they are not ready to come down for treatment without their men,? Tariq
Shahab, a cardiologist who visited the area recently said.
?The women in this area never step out without their fathers, brothers or
husbands and those women who have lost all the males in their family would
still not venture out,? he said.
Survivors on the hilltops were also concerned for their livestock, staying
out to attend to their goats, sheep and buffalos.?AFP
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 18:47:19 -0500
November 19, 2005 Saturday Shawwal 16, 1426
SHANGLA: Death or dishonour ? stark choice for survivors
SHANGLA, Nov 18: With bitterly cold winter about to heap more suffering on
earthquake survivors camped in this mountainous region, Abdul Hameed faces
a stark choice: death or dishonour. Mr Hameed, who lost his home in last
month?s temblor, says he would rather his family die from the cold than
descend from the 10,000ft-high peak and risk being exposed to strangers at
relief camps in the disaster zone.
?We are Pukhtun people. For us, the women?s honour matters more than life,?
Mr Hameed, 28, told AFP at Meira tent camp, believed to be the biggest in
Shangla district.
He descended to the relief village to get blankets, food and medicines but
then returned to Koshgram village on Alai peak.
?What will I do with life if our women are dishonoured down in valley?
Clerics told people up on the hilltop that there is no respect for women
(down there),? he said.
He said his mother, wife, and sister remained in the mountains. ?We feel
safer with them in the hills,? he said.
A cleric told the survivors on the peak that fleeing the disaster-hit areas
was ?un-Islamic,? 35-year-old Bakht Taj, a survivor at the tent village,
said.
?I am not coming down simply because our women?s dignity will come under
threat. I know winter is very harsh. I have lost my home to the quake and I
know it is not possible to live in a tent in harsher cold weather,? he
said.
"But this is not a question of life. This is the question of our women?s
honour,? he said.
Relief officials have warned that around 40,000 survivors on the hilltop in
Alai area would risk death if they did not come down to the valley.
Aid officials have raised a tent city awaiting their arrival to see the
winter out, with snow expected to blanket the peak any day.
But for survivors in the conservative area, the question of honour is more
important than life or death.
Survivor Mian Sarfraz, from the same peak, has, however, registered his
wife and sisters at the village where Finnish charity World Church Service
and China have provided cold-proof tents, and Save the Children and the
United Nations Children?s Fund have arranged other facilities.
?We have been told by clerics that our women will be exposed to foreigners
in the tent village and their pictures will be taken,? Mr Sarfraz said.
But he claimed there was an ulterior motive behind the warnings.
?They are doing so on behalf of landlords who think no one will be left to
take care of their fields,? Mr Sarfraz, 40, told AFP after receiving a
Finland-made winter tent, complete with a stove to warm inhabitants.
Maj Shehzad Ibrahim of Pakistan Army said 307 families were registered at
the tent city, which could accommodate up to 20,000 families.
?They will come down. They cannot stay up there because it will be very
cold after snowfall,? he said.
?Women and children are particularly vulnerable to the winter,? said Tamur
Mueenuddin, health officer in Muzaffarabad for Unicef.
?Children because they don?t have the immunity system and women because in
traditional societies like these, they are rarely allowed out.
?If the husband is away from home through injury or illness, the women are
unlikely to go out and get help for the family. They become even less
empowered,? he said.
In Garhi Dupatta, aid workers feared many injured women would also prefer
death over seeking treatment at relief centres.
?I fear many women will prefer death over (breaking) traditions and customs
as they are not ready to come down for treatment without their men,? Tariq
Shahab, a cardiologist who visited the area recently said.
?The women in this area never step out without their fathers, brothers or
husbands and those women who have lost all the males in their family would
still not venture out,? he said.
Survivors on the hilltops were also concerned for their livestock, staying
out to attend to their goats, sheep and buffalos.?AFP
Comments on this journal
I lived in Saudi Arabia for a few years. I was too young at the time to comprehend what was going on. Looking back now I realize that it is a difficult place for women to live in... and especially for immigrants. The type of discrimination the Saudis put you through is unbelievable. My dad spent three nights in jail because he was traveling without his documents. We had no idea where he was. My mom was going crazy thinking something bad might have happened to him. My uncle traced down his whereabouts and took his documents just in the nick of time or he would have been deported. I have family still living there too. I think they have gotten used to the ways of life there.
Afggirl: Saudi Arabia is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet, and it has zilch to do with religion. It is an unfair society, to say the least! I'm no femi-nazi feminist or anything but I do believe in human rights, and specifically women's rights. SA is a chauvanisitc, male-dominated society where women can't drive, can't venture out to the malls, for shopping, to the movies, vacationing, sight-seeing, etc. on their own unless accompanied by a "valid" male, and where women have practically maintained slave status since prior to the inception of Islam!
I have an aunt/khala jaan that has lived in SA ever since she got married. She tells us many horror stories of wealthy men picking up random girls who are walking in bazaars, etc. and essentially kidnapping them to take them back to their harems to do with as they please; these girls are never seen again. It is pretty sad. Also, God forbid if a woman is wearing a skirt that doesn't cover her properly, she is humiliated in public by having her legs thrashed by a cane by law enforcement people.
My aunt has it easy; she is married to a fellow Punjabi, a successful head of an international company and has never seen a dark moment in life mash'allah but still, I wonder how she does it! I wonder how, day to day, she continues to live in such a restricting society and how my cousins are managed to be raised there. All I know is that, someone like me--a born and raised American--would die a thousand deaths in such a country where women lack the most basic of rights.