In the east, young women who are unable to have a child but then become widowed are shunned and vilified by everyone who knows their plight. These women are deemed to carry a contagious disease whereby any person who associates with them will have the nearest and dearest suffer from the same disease.

They are thrown out of their family home, and many are coaxed into prostitution to survive. Few, having begged in order to remain within the family home, are subject to humiliation of ongoing rape, beating and mental torture. The beatings and the mental torture are also meted out to them by other "fertile" females of the household.

Orphans, also viewed in the same light, receive similar punishment by their closest relatives. The girl orphans, if they reach puberty having survived suicide attempts, are usually sold into prostitution or as domestic slaves.