New Delhi: For a majority of Muslim women life is all about getting married and looking after the husband and children.
Conservative Muslim values and tradition mean women are seldom seen or heard outside their own homes. Girls are married off in their early teens and spend the rest of their lives out of sight of strangers.
But this life spent behind the veil condemned thousands of women to death when Saturday's South Asian earthquake struck Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan.
According to official sources, a majority of the 40,000 people who perished in the 7.6 magnitude temblor were women and children.
Doctors say the same of the injured they are treating across the quake's ?death zone?, stretching from the North West Frontier Province to the mountains and valleys of J&K.
In thousands of homes across the quake zone, women were inside the house preparing food for the family to eat before sunrise, as it is currently the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
The quake struck just before 0900 hours IST when most children were in school and men at work.
Even though they were caught unawares by the violent shaking of the buildings many women did not flee into the relative safety of open streets.
And when the walls came tumbling down they were trapped inside their own homes.
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