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
