Hmong women in Calif. break with traditional roles

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — In a crowded refugee camp in Thailand, Misty Her often sneaked away to a school house and listened through a hole in the wall. She knew she could never attend, being Hmong and a girl.

For centuries, the Hmong — an ethnic minority group clustered in Asia’s mountain villages — held to a rigid division in gender roles. Boys were revered and nurtured. Girls were men’s property, to be married off for a dowry, forbidden to study or work.