Afghan women refugees resurrected as India's plastic waste warriors

[Napa]

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Farah Naz is used to attracting scathing remarks and disapproving looks from neighbors in her Afghan refugee community as she leaves for work each day.

They tell her she is "not a good woman", what she is doing is "shameful" and that her rightful place is inside her south Delhi home - caring for her sick husband and five children.

But after fleeing the Taliban five years ago - where she was drenched in kerosene and almost burnt alive, her husband was ordered killed, and her children were threatened with kidnap - the 32-year-old refugee woman is past caring what people think.

She is on her way to becoming a business woman.

"I had no choice but to work, and now I am proud," said Naz. "I am feeding my family and changing the view of women in my community, but most importantly I am doing a job which is showing that refugees also can do something good."

Naz is one of five Afghan refugee women who are not only battling traditional gender roles by going out to work, but who have also become unlikely warriors in the Indian capital's fight to curb plastic waste pollution...

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-afghanistan-refugees-idUSKBN19E04V

Still a very hard life, but much better than being burnt alive and having your children starve.

 

[PakLFC]

Must be so hard for Afghan people. Oppressed and home and humiliated abroad there seems to be no relief for these poor people. They hate the only country that ever showed some compassion for them.

 

[idrizzy]

Inspiring story. Emancipation of women will changes things in third workd/developing countries.