After Afghan Quake, Many Male Rescuers Aided Men but Not Women

Afghan cultural norms, enforced even in emergencies by the ruling Taliban, forbid physical contact between men and women who are not family members. In the village of Andarluckak, in Kunar Province, the emergency team hurriedly carried out wounded men and children, and treated their wounds, said Ms. Aysha, 19. But she and other women and adolescent girls, some of them bleeding, were pushed aside, she said. “They gathered us in one corner and forgot about us,” she said. No one offered the women help, asked what they needed or even approached them. Tahzeebullah Muhazeb, a male volunteer who traveled to...