In conservative Pakistan, fighting breast cancer means fighting taboos

[SidDithers]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/01/20/in_conservative_pakistan_fighting_breast_cancer_means_fighting_taboos.html

ISLAMABAD—In Pakistan, a country where breast cancer kills more women than terrorist attacks, an awareness group couldn't even say the word "breast" while talking at a university about mammograms and how to check for lumps.

They had to use the euphemism "cancer of women" to discuss a disease often shrouded in social stigma in this majority Muslim nation.

One in nine women in Pakistan will face breast cancer during their life, with the country itself having the highest rate of the disease across Asia, according to the breast cancer awareness group PinkRibbon, oncologists and other aid groups.

Yet discussing it remains taboo in a conservative, Islamic culture where the word breast is associated with sexuality instead of health and many view it as immoral for women to go to the hospital for screenings or discuss it even within their family.

Magical thinking once again ruining lives.



Sid

[Kali]

1. I wonder why the rate is so high there?

[SidDithers]

2. Daytime kick...nt

Sid