Amid the Taliban’s strict decrees in Afghanistan, the Afghan women shared their ordeal of being ignored by male rescuers after two deadly earthquakes jolted the country, killing more than 2,200 people. The rescue workers helped men and children, but women were pushed aside. It is because Taliban laws forbid physical touch between unrelated men and women
As the team of rescue workers reached the village of Bibi Aysha, an Afghan resident, her fear worsened as there were no female rescue workers. The first workers reached her village 36 hours after the earthquake struck the region, which had severely damaged the nearby settlements, according to The New York Times report.
After the rescue team arrived in the village of Andarluckak in Kunar province, the male workers helped wounded men and children and treated them. However, Aysha, a 19-year-old woman, said that she, along with other women and adolescent girls, “some of them bleeding,” were pushed aside.
“They gathered us in one corner and forgot about us,” she said, adding, “No one offered the women help, asked what they needed, or even approached them.”
Read original MSN post HERE.