Research: 2005 Earthquake Left Disabled Pakistani Women Abandoned And Ignored

A new research has revealed that Pakistani women who suffered spinal injuries in the 2005 earthquake that hit the country, have continued to endure hardships years later. The research which is from the University of Alberta reveals that these women have faced abandonment by spouses and families.

Zubia Mumtaz, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health who studies how gender and class inequalities affect maternal health, found that women - far more than men with similar spinal cord injuries - lacked necessary supports to care for themselves or their families.

Mumtaz, along with her team, travelled to remote villages in the Himalayan regions where 80,000 people were killed and 100,000 injured in the October 8, 2005 earthquake.

According to the study, abandonment was a common occurrence. Out of 30 women who were married at the time of the quake, 24 were abandoned by their husbands.

Although some women were cared for by blood relatives, in some cases it came with a price- paraplegic women in Bagh received a stipend from a Dubai-based humanitarian organization- a payment that acted a source of family strife, the report said.

In contrast, paraplegic men were better off then their female counterparts as they did not face lack of support from their wives or family, the report further said.

Source: ANI

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