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Nepal Criminalizes Isolation of Menstruating Women

  • Nepal's government criminalized an ancient Hindu practice on Wednesday that ostracizes women from their houses during menstruation. 

    Nepal's government criminalized an ancient Hindu practice on Wednesday that ostracizes women from their houses during menstruation.  | Photo: Reuters

Published 9 August 2017
Opinion

The patriarchal and casteist custom is practiced in many South Asian countries including India and Bangladesh.

Nepal's government has criminalized an ancient Hindu practice that ostracizes women from their houses during menstruation. 

According to the new law that is expected to come into effect in a year's time, anyone forcing a woman to follow the custom will be sentenced to three months in jail or fined US$30, or both.

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“A woman during her menstruation or post-natal state should not kept in chhaupadi or treated with any kind of similar discrimination or untouchable and inhuman behaviour,” reads the law which was passed by a unanimous vote.

The patriarchal and casteist custom is practiced in many South Asian countries including India and Bangladesh.

It has been linked to an ancient Hindu custom, where women are considered untouchable during the time of menstruation and childbirth. 

Many communities view menstruating women as impure and in some remote areas they are forced to sleep in a hut away from home during their periods, a custom known as chhaupadi.

While in exile, they are barred from touching food, religious icons, cattle and men.

The huts are known as chhau goth and just last month, a teenage girl reportedly died after being bitten by a snake while sleeping in one of the temporary shelters.

There were at least two deaths in late 2016 related to the custom.

In one of the cases, a woman died of smoke inhalation after she lit a fire for warmth.

Human rights activists say many other deaths go unreported. 

According to AFP, the Supreme Court banned the custom over a decade ago but it is still practiced in some remote areas of Nepal. 

Lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokhrel, part of the committee that pushed for the bill, told the news agency he hoped the new law would finally see an end to the custom.
“Chhaupadi didn’t end because there was no law to punish people even after the Supreme Court outlawed the practice,” Pokhrel said.

Mohna Ansari, a member of national human rights commission also supported the law, told Al Jazeera that the new law was a "a big achievement." 
"The law gives an open space for women to come forward if they are forced to follow the practice. It is a custom that makes women feel isolated and puts psychological pressure," she said.

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However, Pema Lhaki, a women's rights activist, seemed less optimistic about the new law.

She described it as unenforceable because it is deeply entrenched in an ancient belief system. 

“It’s a fallacy that it’s men who make the woman do this. Yes, Nepal’s patriarchal society plays a part but it’s the women who make themselves follow chhaupadi,” she told AFP.

“They need to understand the root cause, have strategic interventions and then wait a generation,” she added. 

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