1947 Partition - Female Refugees Using A Makeshift Stove

Women cooking food at a refugee camp they were based in after the 1947 Partition of Indian subcontinent. They migrated from India to Pakistan.

Here the women are seen preparing food. Due to the limited resources, they made efficient use of the materials around them. Often they would construct makeshift stoves and use basic pots and pans to cook. Here they have built stoves using bricks and lit fires using wood and twigs available in their surroundings.

Women were among the worst affected victims of Partition. The chaos and displacement made them especially vulnerable. They were molested, tortured and kidnapped. Many of the abducted women were forcefully converted to the abductors' religion, who also often married them against their will. There are several accounts of women and girls giving up their own lives by jumping into wells, choosing death over the fate that may have awaited them otherwise.

This image is from the collection of F.E. Chaudhry, the only known local Pakistani photographer who captured the events at the time.