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(So whatever happened to the Maoist revolution that was supposed to
transform Nepal?)
NY Times, July 10 2017
Shunned During Her Period, Nepali Woman Dies of Snakebite
By RAJNEESH BHANDARI and NIDA NAJAR
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Every month when her period came, Tulasi Shahi was
sent to stay in her uncle’s hut, the one where he keeps his cows tied
up, in a village in the Dailekh district in western Nepal. This month
was no different. She slept there on wooden boards laid on the ground,
in keeping with a tradition known as chhaupadi that sequesters
menstruating women from their families.
But while she was in the hut on Thursday night, Ms. Shahi, 18, was
bitten by a poisonous snake. Her mother took her to a shaman, but he
could not cure her. Then she was taken to a health clinic, but workers
did not have the antivenom medicine she needed, her family said.
Ms. Shahi died early Friday morning.
“If she was given proper treatment, she would have survived,” said
Kamala Shahi, a cousin of Ms. Shahi’s who works at a government health
post. “She died because of superstition.”
The Supreme Court of Nepal ordered an end to chhaupadi, which is linked
to Hinduism, in 2005. But it is still practiced in many of Nepal’s
isolated villages, particularly in the west. A bill is pending in
Parliament to formally criminalize the practice. Many people in rural
villages believe that menstruating women are impure and can bring bad
luck on a household. Under the chhaupadi tradition, the women are kept
from taking part in normal family activities and social gatherings or
from entering houses, kitchens and temples.
A Nepali government survey in 2010, cited in a State Department human
rights report, found that 19 percent of women in the country aged 15 to
49 practiced chhaupadi, and the proportion rose to 50 percent in the
midwestern and far western regions.
The practice has its dangers: Women must often brave winter cold or
summer heat in rude huts where they are vulnerable to human and animal
intruders.
Anita Gyawali, an official responsible for women’s issues in Dailekh,
said that another teenage girl died in the district about six weeks ago,
also from a snakebite, while staying in a menstrual hut. And a
15-year-old girl in another part of the country died in a menstrual shed
in December; local news reports said she was killed by smoke inhalation
after lighting a fire in the hut to keep warm.
“Young girls feel guilty,” Ms. Gyawali said. “They are forced to follow
this tradition by their parents and religion.”
Ms. Shahi’s family said she did not object to the practice. “I think my
sister accepted it and followed it because it has been continuing since
ages,” said her brother Prem Shahi, 24. “I think she accepted it because
my grandmother followed it and my mother followed it.”
Others pointed to lack of education as a factor.
“I heard about the incident of Tulasi Shahi,” said Rukmini Acharya, 17,
who lives in the area and said she had observed a less extreme version
of the practice. “I am very sad about it. Girls who stay in a hut face a
lot of difficulties. It’s all because the parents are illiterate.”
Radha Paudel, a Kathmandu-based women’s rights activist who focuses on
menstrual health, said Nepal needed to enact legislation specifically
outlawing the practice, and to do a better job of spreading awareness of
its dangers.
“There are so many organizations working on this issue,” Ms. Paudel
said. “Our president is a woman, the speaker is a woman, and our chief
justice was a woman. But girls are dying in the shed, and they have to
live like animals. It’s shameful.”
Rajneesh Bhandari reported from Kathmandu, and Nida Najar from New Delhi.
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