How women live in Pakistan. A look at the daily life of local people in Pakistan. Women in Pakistan are vulnerable to violence

04.12.2019 Diseases

Women are not abandoned in Pakistan. Even if a married man has new love- The Koran obliges to continue to take care of the "old" wife, as before. Provide and love. In life, of course, anything happens, so I will not be responsible for the whole of Pakistan - but nevertheless, I have not met abandoned women there. All are somehow attached.

If a woman becomes widowed, for example, then she does not grieve - she is married by one of the brothers of the deceased. Or some other relative. That is, the husband's family continues to feed the daughter-in-law, drink, dress up and give money. I like this tradition. By the way - there are no abandoned children and old people there either.

Polygamy does happen, but it is rare. Childlessness is usually the reason for a second marriage. Then the man makes a second attempt. A woman is left without an additional chance ... The reason for a second marriage is also men's work: if a man lives in two countries (or in two houses in different parts of his homeland), then over time he begins to live, respectively, in two families. Here, the difference from the same Russia is not great ...

Women stay away from other people's men. If, for example, a guest (not from among the relatives) has come to see her husband or brother, then he enters the house not through the main entrance, but through an additional one. To a separate room. Women don't go there. And the owner himself serves the treat. Likewise with women - if girlfriends come to the hostess - her husband does not sit next to her. If the guests accidentally come to the hour when the family dines, then they will be served lunch dishes. And if - in the interval between meals - then they are treated to tea.

In general, they often go there. Especially women. They don't work for the most part. So - they will redo the affairs of the house - they will say to the husband - "Let Muzafar (the driver) take us to Marya, she has not been with her for a long time." And Muzafar is lucky. Though Lately and they manage without muzafar help - they themselves rule.

Still, women rarely go out on their own. Preferred with husbands (or brothers). And this is not lawlessness at all. And what ... The husband will stand at the ticket office for a ticket in the park, and he will "build" the child so that he does not ask for extra ice cream. And in general - and protection, and support, and love - even at home, even on the street. And the woman does not run about paperwork. For example, my wife lost her passport. She will not go to the police to write a statement, stand in line, wag her nerves with some serviceman ... Her husband will overcome all the main red tape for her.

On the streets of Pakistan, sometimes there are women "without faces", walled up from head to toe (instead of a face - a dense mesh). "These are people from the mountains" - the indigenous women, who do not hide the beauty of their faces, competently told me. "Hiding" a woman is not a Muslim tradition, but a pre-Muslim whim, which was inherited by some ethnic groups. In Peshawar, women cover their heads with a chader (a scarf so wide that it also hides all the curves of the body, almost to the knees). There are many bareheaded women in Punjabi cities. And all the young ladies in Pakistan wear national clothes: wide trousers and a straight dress just over the knee, with high slits on the sides. The clothes are mostly bright, but they also love White color, and muted tones. I don’t remember black at all, it’s quite rare. Some wear long skirts"to the floor", jeans have also become popular. For festivities, freethinkers sometimes wear an Indian sari. Pakistani ladies do not limit themselves in jewelry: the brighter, the largest and the more perky, the better. In families with an average income, every adult lady has gold bracelets in her arms in the amount "from wrist to elbow" (I exaggerate, but quite a bit).

In the family where I was staying, women by no means feel powerless. They feel protected. They speak loudly and confidently. They can start dinner - and without waiting for the men from work. They get up early, finish all household chores in the afternoon, and then - chores with children, handicrafts, hair combing ... Clean, fragrant, well-groomed women. But very, very different.

Irum Saeed, 30 years old. Irum received severe burns on her face, back and shoulders 12 years ago, when a guy she rejected splashed acid on her in the middle of broad daylight outside. She underwent plastic surgery 25 times.

We are used to living with you in a society where man and woman are equal in their rights. Where attempts to restrict the rights and freedom of a partner are unacceptable and condemned by others and the law. But there are countries on Earth in which the situation is completely different in this regard. Take Pakistan for example. What do you know about this country? To be honest, after what I learned about it, I completely lost the desire to further be interested in the achievements of Pakistan, its culture and history. And the reason is quite simple - women in Pakistan are deprived of any rights. They do not know what freedom and independence are. Women in Pakistan are born to serve their husbands and their families, without any right to personal opinion. And this is the law supported by the state.

Violence against women in Pakistan

Recently, Nicholas D. Kristof wrote an article about Pakistani women victims of particularly severe domestic violence. The article was titled “Terrorism that’s personal”. The photographs for the article were taken by Emilio Morenatti, who traveled around the country to capture evidence of this violence. Let's take a close look at these impressive photos:

Shameem Akhter, 18 years old. Three years ago she was raped by three guys, who then doused her with acid. Only 10 plastic surgeries were performed to somehow reduce her scars.

Najaf Sultana, 16 years old. At the age of 5, she was thrown into a fire by her father while the girl was asleep. The father of the family simply did not want to have another girl in the family. As a result, Najaf became blind and now, abandoned by her parents, lives with relatives. Underwent plastic surgery 15 times.

Shehnaz Usman, 36 years old. Was doused with acid due to a family dispute 5 years ago. Underwent plastic surgery 10 times

Shahnaz Bibi, 35 years old. Ten years ago, she was doused with acid due to a family dispute. I did not do any plastic surgeries.

Kanwal Kayum, 26 years old. Was doused with acid 1 year ago by a guy with whom she did not want to marry. She has never had plastic surgery.

Munira Asef, 23 years old. Was doused with acid five years ago by a guy she turned down. She underwent plastic surgery 7 times.

Bushra Shari, 39 years old. Was doused with acid on her ex-husband, with whom she tried to divorce five years ago. She has undergone plastic surgery 25 times.

Memuna Khan, 21 years old. Was doused with acid in a family dispute. She has undergone plastic surgery 21 times.

Zainab Bibi, 17 years old. The guy with whom she did not want to marry poured acid on her face 5 years ago. She did plastic surgery several times.

Naila Farhat, 19 years old. A guy with whom she did not want to marry, doused her with acid 5 years ago. Has done plastic surgery several times.

Saira Liaqat, 26 years old. At the age of 15, she was doused with acid by a guy with whom she refused to live together until graduation. I did plastic surgery 9 times. In his hands he holds his portrait - as it was before the tragedy.

What emotions are born inside from viewing these heavy photographs? Deep shock, misunderstanding, surprise, complete rejection and rejection of this culture. And it cannot be otherwise. The justice system in this country is in a state of deep stagnation and regression. It was this system that allowed society to treat women so cruelly, and the people who committed these crimes are not in danger of punishment and they will not be punished for their monstrous actions.

Women in Pakistan are vulnerable to violence

It happened so iteratively. The main task of a woman in this country is to get married, have children, give all her time to her family and obey her husband unquestioningly. Even now, a woman finds herself defenseless against violence, violent death, she is the most vulnerable cell of society. A woman in Pakistan is born to obey her whole life and this is not discussed.

Recently, three Christian girls in Pakistan who rejected the advances of wealthy Muslim men were torn to pieces by them. One of the girls died.

Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association and Human Rights Defender, native of London Wilson Chowdhry, who published the story, reported that one of the men said, "Christian girls are for one thing only, for the sexual gratification of Muslim men."

It happened on January 13 in Lahore. Three girls, 17, 18 and 20 years old, were returning home after a hard day at work. Four Muslim men in a car began to chase and harass them. The men bullied, shouted "obscene and shameless comments" and tried to get the girls into the car to "ride and have fun."

The girls declined the "invitation", adding that they were "devout Christians and do not accept sex outside of marriage."

This immediately changed the behavior of the guys, who became more aggressive and began to force the girls into the car, threatening to force them to sit down. Frightened by the threats, the girls fled in panic. This only infuriated the Muslim men even more, one of them yelled: "How dare you run away from us, Christian girls are for only one thing, for the pleasure of Muslim men."

Muslim men chased girls, driving over them with a car. Two girls fell to the ground; one had a broken hip, the other had shattered ribs. The youngest of the girls, 17 years old Kiran Masih, was thrown into the air and crashed into the windshield. The Muslims, laughing, added gas, with the girl on the windshield. Then the driver apparently hit the brakes. When she stopped abruptly, she flew off the car and hit the ground. With a split skull and broken bones, within minutes she was dead.

Sumblay, a 20-year-old Pakistani Christian woman, suffered a broken thigh when she and her friends were rammed by Muslim men in a car. Christian girls were attacked by men for refusing to have sex with them. Sumblay's friend, 17-year-old Kieran Masih, was killed in the attack. (Photo Credit: British Pakistani Christian Association [left]; Terrorism Investigation Project [right])

As usual, Pakistani police reportedly "made no effort to apprehend the young people and delayed the investigation." Choudhry said:

In any other country [not Pakistan] the perpetrators would be arrested, convicted of murder and sentenced to long imprisonment ... Violence against Christians is rarely investigated and extremely rarely tried ... Women in Pakistan have inferior status, but Christian women have become the target of capture or terror, especially after this attack. The Muslim public organization Solidarity and Peace Movement points out that 700 Christian women are abducted, raped and forced to enter into Islamic marriage in Pakistan every year - that is, almost twice a day, and the world does nothing.

Similar reports - including claims that a Muslim man has the right to rape Christians and other "infidels" - common in Pakistan.

A Muslim rapist who attacked a 9-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan told her "not to worry because he did the same service to other Christian girls."

Local residents, discussing the remark about the raped 9-year-old victim, said: “This is a shame. This happens often. Christian girls are considered a commodity to be spoiled at their leisure. It is considered a right to rape them. According to the community mentality, this is not considered a crime. Muslims regard them as "spoils of war."

The Islamic concept of "booty" is explained by one of the leading authorities in Islamic law and jurisprudence to the deceased Majid Khadduri in his work War and Peace in the Law of Islam:

The term "booty" (ghanima) applies specifically to property seized by force from non-Muslims. This means not only property (movable and immovable), but also people, as azra (prisoners of war) or sabi (women and children) ... If the slave is a woman, the master is allowed to have sexual intercourse with her as a concubine.

Even in Western countries, Muslims from Pakistan consider it their right to rape and sexually torture "unfaithful" women - or even Muslim women if they walk unaccompanied or without a veil in the evening. Of course, a woman in a veil can also be attacked, but this is the same as with non-Muslim rapists - he wants this, that's all. But if a Muslim woman is not at home, he can explain or justify the violence as “his right” by the fact that she is acting like an unfaithful person and supposedly deserves such treatment. The author does not know of any examples when a Muslim man chose a Muslim woman as an object of violence, because he thought that he “had the right”.

In 2012, nine Muslim men - eight of them from Pakistan - were found guilty of child abuse and sexual exploitation in the UK. Similar to what Christians and other “infidels” in Pakistan are told before committing violence, these men regularly “told their victims that it was okay to be passed on to each other for sex by dozens of men,“ because we do it in our country ".

Today, with the spread of Muslims in the West, what they do with "unfaithful" women in their host countries is more and more like what they do with "unfaithful" women in the countries where they were born - as thousands of women in Cologne and other cities.

Maria Mogol, 42of the year,

fitness instructor, Hyderabad, Pakistan

“I reacted philosophically to the need to wear a headscarf on the street: astronauts on the moon wear a spacesuit ...”

"My Planet" asks Russian-speaking residents different countries the world. In this article, Maria from St. Petersburg tells how she got from an accountant to retrain as a fitness instructor and how life works in Pakistan.

We arrived in Pakistan in 2010, "Try to live" in the homeland of her husband. Daughters have already been school age, 9 and 6 years old, and we were both unsure if they would be able to get comfortable in the new environment.

Education here takes place in English and Urdu. And later I also had to learn Arabic and Sindhi - the language of the province in which we live.

Winters are very warm here. Hyderabad is located in southern Pakistan, in Sindh province, three and a half hours from Karachi and the Arabian Sea coast. V winter months here +25 ° С during the day and + 8-10 ° С at night, and in summer the daytime temperature reaches + 45-50 ° С.

Pakistanis' closets are literally full of clothes. This surprised me very much: it’s warm! But when we spent the summer here, it immediately became clear why. In the heat, you have to change three or even four suits per day, taking a shower before that, of course.

Schools start working earlier in the summer from 7:30 (regular schedule: 8: 00-13: 00). The clerks work according to the usual schedule for the whole world. But private shops open only after two in the afternoon - however, they work until late. We save ourselves with air conditioners and fans. Even in open restaurants there are such.

There is no beach vacation as such. A trip to the coast in Pakistani style (if suddenly such a miracle happens) - this is a villa with a pool and individual access to the sea. But you can only swim in clothes. The sea water is very salty, so there is not much fun. Sunbathing is also not accepted: it is believed that what lighter skin, the more beautiful. Standard beach activities include camel rides and street food such as fried crabs and other seafood.

Hyderabad is not a tourist city, although the third largest in Pakistan, there is a lot to see here. In the old part of the city, there is the Shahi Bazaar (Royal Bazaar), one of the largest in Asia. And also our city is famous throughout Pakistan for its bracelets made of glass.

At first, everything was unusual for us: climate, architecture: one-two-storey cottages, narrow streets, not very clean. There was not enough space, greenery.

The people here are very hospitable. They love to treat, love to visit and receive guests, and at any time of the day they are greeted with a smile.

According to Islam, guests are angels in our home. Visiting us, they fill the house with light, and when they leave, they carry away negative energy from the house. In Pakistan, they do not go to visit by invitation, but just like that. And even if you unexpectedly arrived with a visit, and the owners were going to leave on their own business, then the business will be postponed, and you will certainly be treated to tea with milk. Therefore, Pakistanis are very surprised that in Russia we so rarely meet with friends and relatives and always “invite” to visit.

Traditionally, Pakistanis live as one big family, the young are with the elders. The appearance of a daughter-in-law in the family is a great event. And if she is a foreigner, this is generally exotic. All attention is on her. How will it show itself? What can it do? How will he get along with everyone? If this is the eldest daughter-in-law (the wife of the eldest of the brothers), how will she manage the household? Will the mother-in-law entrust her with this matter? Family hierarchy in Pakistan is very serious. Each family member has its own special names, which reflect seniority. The younger ones strictly obey the older ones. It was the same with us, however, now we live in a European way, separately, and not in a house, but in an apartment.

Nobody wears a burqa here. In large cities, most women dress almost in European style. If a woman is without a headscarf and in relatively open clothes, of course, this is not particularly welcome, but there are no public prohibitions on this matter. It all depends on the traditions of a particular family.

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Pakistani women have no idea about sports. Most schools don't even have physical education lessons. Boys at least play cricket, but girls don't

But still, this is the world of men. On the streets there are 90% of them. In the market or in stores, both sellers and buyers are only men. And if you need to buy underwear, then your husband goes shopping. True, recently special sections have begun to appear in supermarkets, where entrance is only for women.

I reacted philosophically to the need to wear a scarf on the street: astronauts on the moon wear the same spacesuit ... Without it there is nothing. In Pakistan, there is no way to have a headscarf on your head either.

I don't have any "crusts" of a fitness instructor. In St. Petersburg for many years I went to shaping, aerobics, step, to the pool ... That's all the training. In Pakistan, I just walked into a beauty salon closest to my home and offered my services. She somehow crookedly explained that I can make fitness for women ... And they told me: yes!

People come to fitness to lose weight. And it’s urgent. Best of all, if for a couple of lessons: “Help! I'm getting married in a week! Lose weight urgently !!! " But most, like myself, come more for the sake of communication, since the classes are group.

Once I told my clients that I cook oatmeal for breakfast. They begged me for the recipe, and then for another six months they asked why their porridge was not working.

In the sauna after fitness, all the girls are sitting in clothes. I didn’t understand before why they were always dressed, but now, on the contrary, it seems to me that they are right. Why show your nakedness to everyone ?! Recently one client came in and was horrified: "You have naked here!" And this was me in a sleeveless T-shirt ...

Pakistani women have no idea about sports. Most schools don't even have physical education lessons. Boys even play cricket, but girls don't.

The school hosts a sport day once a year. This is a cross between carnival, parade and fun starts. Moreover, participation in it is paid, so not everyone can even afford this sport day.

Kean eng chan

In our school, learning is joint, but boys and girls sit in different classes... True, there are several common subjects: computers or chemistry, for example. But there are also schools where boys and girls study together. Of course, everyone has a special interest in our daughters, even the teachers. They are interested in how they study in Russia, what schools, what fashion.

The dream of any Pakistani parent is for their daughter to become a doctor. The teaching profession is popular. Announcers and TV presenters are often women too. Many work from home: give culinary master classes, sew to order, open their own small "beauty salons" ... They allocate one room for this and work. It is full of design courses, computer literacy. Tutoring is very developed. In general, one should not think that a woman in Pakistan is such a downtrodden creature who sees nothing, knows nothing and cannot ... There would be a desire, as they say.

Pakistan is a country of contrasts. Luxury and poverty exist side by side. Someone drives Pajero, and next to them, donkeys in a harness are transporting furniture.

The hardest part was adopting a lifestyle without race and rush. Here women have more household chores, they have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It's not a burden for me, I like to cook.

I miss black coffee, aromatic tea. And more greenery outside the window

Nobody cares about diet here. The cuisine is the same as in India: spicy fatty food, seasoned with sauces. But delicious! I really like biryani pilaf and chicken meatballs in white sauce. And, of course, vegetables in all their variety. There are three types of cucumbers alone, two types of spinach, ordinary and white eggplants, and three or four types of zucchini.

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Well, here we are back from Pakistan. We took 7 people on a two-week tour - I would not have dared to go to this country on my own. The people got together not easy - some have 100 countries behind their backs, and some have 130 :) Accordingly, all the conversations revolved around this - who was where and who else was going to go. At the same time, everyone has such a tight schedule that a reasonable question arose - what do all these people do for a living if they drive all the time? There was a feeling that I was alone from the whole group on a well-deserved next vacation, while the rest, it seems, all life is a continuous vacation :)

We flew by Turkish Airlines from Moscow with a transfer in Istanbul. Tickets are expensive - about 45 thousand rubles, it was not cheaper. Arrival in Lahore, return flight from Islamabad.

The route was impressive. To begin with, I will describe everything briefly, because there are too many impressions, and because of this, writing a report is very difficult to approach. Then there will be several more detailed stories on each day of the trip, there will also be historical excursions that will help you better understand what Pakistan is.

Our guide Pasha accompanied us on the trip. In general, he is a Pashtun by nationality, but even in Soviet times he studied in Kharkov, hence the nickname.

So Lahore. We arrived there early in the morning and were at the hotel at about five. This, of course, left its mark on the program of exploring the city - it seems that our program allocated two days for it, but of these two days we actually slept half a day.

This is the Badshahi Mosque - the main attraction of Lahore, and indeed of the whole of Pakistan. It was built in 1674, during the reign of Aurangzeb, padishah of the Mughal Empire. Those who were in India should know him as the son who overthrew and imprisoned his father Shah Jahan, the very one who built the Taj Mahal, in a fortress.

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Next to the mosque, Pakistani guards guard the mausoleum of the poet and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, the ideological mastermind and one of the founding fathers of Pakistan.

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In addition to the Badshahi mosque, there is another beautiful mosque in Lahore named after Wazir Khan. It was built in 1635, during the reign of Padishah Shah Jahan. The same one.

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Do you know what strikes the most about Lahore? I've already been to India and Bangladesh. Given the general history, I expected to see the same hellish trash on the streets in Pakistan as there. But it was not there! Where are the mountains of rubbish and smoking dumpsters? Where are the bodies lying side by side on the streets? Where are the homeless cows and pigs walking around? There is none of them! Really no! And most importantly - where is the main symbol of the entire "Indian world", where are the miserable three-wheeled bicycle carriages carrying any cargo, from passengers to huge cabinets and five-meter pipes? They're not there either! In Pakistan, it seems that there is a rule that either cars or, at worst, horses and donkeys should carry heavy loads. What really amazed me was the feeling that Pakistanis have much more dignity than the people of India and Bangladesh.

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Also in Lahore, of the sights, there is the Lahore Fort, Shalimar Gardens and the Minar-e-Pakistan Tower, but I will talk about this later. On the second day, we went towards the Indian border to take part in a colorful show called "border closure". Most tourists come to this place from the side of India, but we looked at it all from the side of Pakistan. Here, watch how Pakistani rangers shake their fists at their Indian colleagues :)

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The funny thing here is how the soldiers ceremoniously walk, lifting their legs above their heads. In black, they are Pakistanis, in red, they are Indians. Pay attention - Indians in uniforms still have old-fashioned white leggings, while Pakistanis do not.

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During the performance, the people are periodically roused into the microphone with patriotic chants -

Taaa ... Pi!

Pakistan? - the presenter shouts.

ZINDABAD !!! - shouts the people in response, raising their hands.

Tili-tili? - the presenter is not appeased.

PAKISTAN!!! -the audience screams in euphoria

At the same time, on the other side of the border, spectators in the same language shout - Hindustan! ZINDABAD !!!

Did you know that the state language in India and Pakistan is actually the same Hindustani language, only Indian Hindi uses the Devanagari alphabet, and Pakistani Urdu uses the Persian script?

In general, I must say, all the way I had the feeling that the Indians and Pakistanis are one people. Men cannot be visually distinguished, especially if they do not wear Muslim hats or Wahhabi beards. And women in bright outfits generally look the same. At the same time, which is typical, in huge India there are almost as many Muslims as in the whole of Pakistan. Amazing, huh? Why don't they all go to where Sharia is?

And the total population in Pakistan at the moment is about 200 million. Almost all are Muslims. Christians, Hindus and Sikhs only 3.6%

In general, both India and Pakistan are multinational and multilingual countries. At the same time, only 7% of the population considers state Urdu to be native in Pakistan. The most privileged nation in Pakistan is the Punjabis. It is the state of Punjab that is most developed. At the same time, India also has the state of Punjab, where the Punjabi language is also spoken. But about the Pashtuns, our guide, the Pashtun himself, said that the police can easily arrest, beat or rob them. They are considered to have "come in large numbers" from Afghanistan, although, as is known, the Pashtun lands were simply cut by the Durand Line, which is why the people were divided, and therefore the Afghan Pashtuns do not recognize Pakistan at all.

On the 3rd day of the trip, we set off from Lahore to Islamabad, on the way stopping by the grandiose Fort Rohtas, another historical monument of the Mughal era.

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The capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, is a modern city that was built quite recently, in 1960. Everything is modern here, including the largest mosque in Pakistan - the mosque named after the Saudi king Faisal.

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On the slopes of the Margalla Hills above Islamabad, there are observation platforms where such funny monkeys live. Alas, like many cities in Asia, Islamabad is very often foggy, so the review was not very good.

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Another important site in the Pakistani capital is the National Monument on Shakarparian Hill. "Stone Flower" consists of 4 large and 3 small petals, according to the number of provinces in Pakistan - Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, Khyber Pashtunia - as well as autonomous territories - Azad Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, etc. "tribal zone" near the border with Afghanistan, where the Taliban fighters are now in power.

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Next to the monument is a museum that tells about the birth of Pakistan. I loved the well-executed compositions here that showcase the defining moments of Pakistani history. Here, for example, the founder of Pakistan - Mohammed Ali Jinnah - speaks to his supporters.

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The older city of Rawalpindi adjoins modern Islamabad. And if in Islamabad everyone drives by car, then it is in the order of things to ride the same motorcycle :)

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What else really amazes is the amazing friendliness of the locals. Seeing tourists, everyone smiles, waving their hands, from schoolchildren to gray-bearded grandfathers. And if you tell them salam-aleikum, they will be glad in general. Many themselves ask to photograph them, and the most advanced ask tourists to take a picture with them. A photo with a foreigner, as you know, brings happiness :)

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Those who are not distinguished by excessive benevolence are all kinds of local security officers. Pakistan is a real military-police state, and Chekists with machine guns are everywhere here. They are especially strained by their posts on the roads every 10-15 kilometers. Each time we were stopped, and each time our guide pulled out another photocopy with our names, passport and visa numbers. Sometimes they let us go quickly, sometimes they kept us longer, and before leaving, one of the Chekists with a Kalashnikov would often get on the bus to “guard” us on the road. This service, as I understand it, is paid, but you can't refuse. By the way, some foreigners hired such a guard for the whole tour, and from this they had less problems... If the Chekists stop the car and see another Chekist inside, then their attitude towards those who arrived immediately is different, more cordial. The escort usually drives until the next post so that he can return home with other soldiers, and there the car is either released without protection, or the next soldier is given.

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How do women dress in Pakistan? Well, in different ways. The most advanced urban women - like this, even go without headscarves, although they always keep them ready. Less advanced - like this "nesting doll" on the left.

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Most people are dressed like this

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However, there are regions in Pakistan where such obscurantism is really flourishing - these are mainly the Pushchtun regions adjacent to Afghanistan. We drove through these too - that's real, all the women on the street there look like this -

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In general, the position of women in Pakistan is well expressed by this photo.

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The 5th day of the trip began with a visit to the Taxila archaeological zone, where the ruins of ancient Buddhist monasteries are located. The excursion was led by such a red-bearded grandfather -

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On the way we met Pakistani Gypsies, who were moving as a whole encampment in such vehicles. Or are they still not gypsies? By the way, pay attention - I discovered among the Pakistanis an incomprehensible custom to keep in their mouths the edge of a scarf, which is wound either over the head or around the neck. Why so? So that the wind doesn't blow away? So I have seen this more than once, even with ordinary pedestrians.

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After leaving the capital, the famous Pakistani painted trucks start to come across on the roads. Well, you've probably seen these in travel movies. A cabin, and a whole carved wooden temple is installed on top. And with a reverse bias! I wonder what their aerodynamic quality is? However, for an average speed of 20 km / h, which they develop on such roads, this is probably not so critical :)