PARK FALLS - Our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. For some people, practicing that freedom means escaping from beliefs they no longer respect. For people living in religious colonies that require separation from the rest of society, that escape can be very difficult. But that is the story of nine former Hutterites who recently moved to Park Falls.
"They live about 100 people per community, and each family has their own home," said Cindy Waldner, a former Hutterite. "The women are not allowed to have any driver's license. They don't vote or anything. It's three head leaders that are in charge of all the daily decisions in the colony."
Cindy, her two sisters, and six others, now known as The Nine, all come from a Hutterite Colony in Manitoba, Canada. It was a tightly-controlled, male-dominated community.
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