Re: Paki attitudes towards disabilities...
When I was living in Pakistan, I never personally know any handicap or 'abnormal' (that's the term they used/still use) back home, persons but I remember hearing about them. My Daadi Jan told me that in her family there was a mentally retarded ( for the lack of a better word) young girl and as soon as she hit puberty the parents had her undergo hysterectomy ( removal of uterus). This was done so that no pregagnacy results if she was unfortunately raped by any male family member/servant . My mother also once motioned that when she was a little girl, in her neighborhood there was a boy who was born blind. His parents figured that since he can't read, go to school, let him be a Hafiz-Quran. Unfortunately the local Molwee Sahib was a terror. My mother recalls that she and the rest of the children would hear the blind boys screams when Molwi hit him with sticks every afternnon. Mom says the poor boy was so utterly terrified and fearful that soon after he started taking lesson, one day he died in his sleep-his heart just stopped. Now I am not the one to connect dots between one thing and the another, I am just retelling the story as was recalled and told by my mother. Oh! I just remembered, one of my class fellow had a mentally retarded child ( thay were a very rich family and there was lot of inbreeding with cousins marrying other cousins) Her retarded son was in 24-7 care of a servant, I believe she was ashamed by him and whenever we saw her in gatherings and parties she would bring only her 'normal' children with her.
Breaks my heart :(
Very sad incidents.