Afghan women left beneath the rubble of the earthquake: "No skin contact with males." Courtesy: Rules for Gender

 

After the fatal earthquake and massive aftershocks that destroyed numerous structures and killed at least 2,200 people, centuries-old practices that have long held women back in Afghanistan are now making sure they are among the last to be rescued, or not evacuated at all.

Because it is illegal for men to touch women, the bodies of the deceased are hauled out by their clothing, and many female survivors who are trapped beneath debris are not being rescued in the absence of female rescuers.

For the past four years, rescue operations in Afghanistan, which is ruled by the Taliban, who are notorious for placing severe restrictions on women, have been beset not only by debris but also by gender norms.

After more than 36 hours of the earthquake tearing across eastern Afghanistan's mountainous regions on Sunday, Bibi Aysha, whose town, Andarluckak in Kunar province, saw the first rescue workers, said in a New York Times story, "They gathered us in one corner and forgot about us."

According to the NYT story, no one approached the women, inquired what they needed, or provided assistance.

Emergency personnel quickly evacuated wounded men and children, while Aysha, 19, and other ladies and teenage girls were pushed aside, some of them bleeding.

According to Tahzeebullah Muhazeb, a male volunteer who visited Mazar Dara in the same province, it seemed as though rescuers were unable to see women since the all-male medical staff there was reluctant to pull them from the wreckage of fallen structures.

Women seemed to be invisible. The report cited 33-year-old Muhazeb as saying, "The women were sitting apart, waiting for care, while the men and children were treated first."