The NY Times reported a couple of weeks ago that rescuers in Afghanistan don’t rescue women.

The first rescue workers reached Bibi Aysha’s village more than 36 hours after an earthquake devastated settlements across eastern Afghanistan’s mountainous areas on Sunday. But instead of bringing relief, the sight of them heightened her fears; not a single woman was among them.

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.

It’s interesting that the Times translates “evil religious rules that punish women” to “Afghan cultural norms.” Yes, sure, they are cultural norms, but those cultural norms are specifically religious norms, enforced by the viciously theocratic and misogynistic Taliban. “Cultural norms” sounds so benign – eating certain foods on certain days of the week, charity, prayer, holidays – way too benign to encompass leaving women to suffer and die because men must not touch women but also women must not go outside or do any public work so hooray hooray we have a catch-22 that means women suffer and die. Don’t call it cultural norms, call it what it is: misogynistic theocratic rules laid down 16 centuries ago by a man who despised women.

Tahzeebullah Muhazeb, a male volunteer who traveled to Mazar Dara, also in Kunar Province, said that members of the all-male medical team there were hesitant to pull women out from under the rubble of collapsed buildings. Trapped and injured women were left under stones, waiting for women from other villages to reach the site and dig them out.

“It felt like women were invisible,” said Mr. Muhazeb, 33. He added, “The men and children were treated first, but the women were sitting apart, waiting for care.”

Because they’re so worthless and such whores, despite being the source of all those men and children who were treated first.

Though the Taliban have not released a gender breakdown of the casualties, women have faced an especially harsh ordeal, made worse by neglect and isolation, more than half a dozen doctors, rescue workers and women in areas hit by the quake said in interviews.

Afghanistan faces a critical shortage of health care workers and, in particular, of women in that field. Last year, the Taliban imposed a ban on women’s enrollment in medical education. The dearth of female doctors and rescue workers has been all too evident in the wake of the earthquake.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Men must not touch women, but women must not get medical education, so hey presto the result is that women cannot get any kind of trained medical care at any time for any reason. The very best they can hope for is amateur care from the few women who are allowed to step outside.