No women aid workers in Pakistan quake area: Clerics
Reuters, 26th July 2006
Muslim clerics in Pakistan's conservative North West Frontier Province want local authorities to expel all women working for international relief agencies in earthquake affected areas by the end of this month.
The clerics accuse the women, including Pakistanis employed by foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of dressing inappropriately, mixing with men and drinking alcohol, which is banned in Islamic Pakistan.
"We are not against the NGOs, but we are against them spreading obscenity in society and trying to weaken our faith by corrupting our women," Moazzam Ali Shah, head of the Movement to Cleanse Society, told Reuters in Mansehra town.
The clerics have not said what action they might take if the women aid workers are not asked to leave.
More than 50 international NGOs are based in Mansehra carrying out relief and rehabilitation projects for the victims of a massive earthquake that killed over 73,000 people and rendered millions homeless in Pakistan's Kashmir and Frontier province last October.
Reuters, 26th July 2006
Muslim clerics in Pakistan's conservative North West Frontier Province want local authorities to expel all women working for international relief agencies in earthquake affected areas by the end of this month.
The clerics accuse the women, including Pakistanis employed by foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of dressing inappropriately, mixing with men and drinking alcohol, which is banned in Islamic Pakistan.
"We are not against the NGOs, but we are against them spreading obscenity in society and trying to weaken our faith by corrupting our women," Moazzam Ali Shah, head of the Movement to Cleanse Society, told Reuters in Mansehra town.
The clerics have not said what action they might take if the women aid workers are not asked to leave.
More than 50 international NGOs are based in Mansehra carrying out relief and rehabilitation projects for the victims of a massive earthquake that killed over 73,000 people and rendered millions homeless in Pakistan's Kashmir and Frontier province last October.
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