Cultural issues complicate quake reconstruction in Pakistan

Published: 2006-08-08

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNS) -- As residents of Pakistan's rugged northern mountains continue to recover from the earthquake that shook the region last October, new fault lines have emerged in the political and cultural landscape, complicating the challenge of reconstruction. The quake seemed to do the most damage in communities where traditional culture holds tremendous power over people's daily lives, where women pass their days secluded from public life and where representatives of Western aid agencies are looked at with suspicion. Nongovernmental organizations operating in the quake zone have security officers who hang around mosques on Fridays to listen to the preaching of Islamic fundamentalist leaders, some of whom lead organizations that are officially banned by the government because of terror links. In a March report, the independent nonprofit International Crisis Group claimed the government's tolerance of the banned groups has "empowered extremists" and could "further undermine the prospects of democratization in Pakistan."

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