Factors Influencing Mental Illness Rates in Pakistan

At the 13^th year of her life, she was worried due to the recently started bleeding from her vaginal area without any manifested injury. She ran to her mother and asked that what is happening to her. Her mother scolded and asked her to put some piece of cloth over there so that the bleeding nobody could notice the bleeding as it would be a source of embarrassment for the family and for the girl herself. Her mother then sent her to a special house which was full of menstruating girls and pregnant women. This is the story of 13 years old Huran Bibi from Kalash valley of Chitral, who was one of the members of Bashalani(the house built specially for the menstruating and pregnant women.) The cultural view of Kalash people is based on the concept of purity and menstruating and pregnant women are considered impure as per their cultural beliefs. Being a girl from a primitive culture I always thought to explore the different strong and weak parts of our culture which may impact the mental health of people in a healthy or unhealthy way respectively. The reason for choosing this topic is the trial to understand the impacts of our culture on our mental health.