Mullahs on Earthquake Relief: Women Need Not Apply

Just when one thinks that the mullahs can't possibly get any worse, they manage to scale new heights in idiocy. This is the latest bit of lunacy (via The Daily Times):

Clerics want no women aid workers in quake areas

MANSEHRA: Clerics in the NWFP want 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-government organisations (NGOs), of dressing improperly, mixing with men and drinking alcohol.

“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 Tehreek-e-Islaha Muashra, or Movement to Cleanse Society, said.

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 Kashmir and NWFP last October.

“We know an ultimatum has been given and we are waiting to see what happens,” said Frank Lehmann, a senior official with World Vision, an NGO involved in providing schooling for children still living in tent encampments. “We respect the local culture and try to behave accordingly,” Lehmann said, adding that the relief agencies had raised their concerns with the local authorities. Police have given assurances that aid workers will be protected, while talks are held with clerics to settle the issue. “No one would be allowed to disrupt relief work and we are absolutely serious about security issues,” Waqas Aziz, a district police officer, said.

“We see this as a local issue, which is being defused. But we have told the NGOs to take care about local sensitivities while working in this area,” he said.

Jamaatud Dawa, a charity with links to banned militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, is active in the area, and its officials in Balakot said they supported the allegations against the foreign aid workers.

I know of several women who are working in these areas, and they are generally not the sort of women who will be scared away by some half-sentient mullah. However, it is interesting that the main target might be foreign female aid workers; the main group quoted above is World Vision, a US-based Christian aid group (yes, one of those really awful "let's save the dark-skinned victims and while we're at it let's try and convert them too" type of groups - they are pretty active in Darfur, for example). That does thicken the plot a bit, but of course does not justify this absurd behavior on the part of the mullahs. But let me also make a request to World Vision: please stop trying to convert Pakistanis to Christianity. They already have many mind-numbing extremist versions of religion to choose from, and they don't need your version to confuse them even more.