WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

 

http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/179799/repulsive-untouchables-chhaupadi-the-vile-curse-that-lives-within.html

Nepal – Rural Areas Continue Practice of Chhaupadi - Women Expelled During Menstrual Periods

 

JTW Op-Ed, Andrew E. Tchie*

5 February 2015 - For many women, the monthly menstruation cycle can be a time of emotional upheaval and personal discomfort. For many women, having the personal comfort of a partner or a husband to help them during this period is an added benefit. However, in some countries many women are forced to get married at an age when they are still trying to comprehend the changes taking place within their own bodies, while simultaneously trying to get on with the everyday routines of being a woman, mother and a worker. This period is compounded by the fact that, for many women, this monthly cycle is deemed by members of their families, communities and religious conservatives as a form of uncleanliness - or a curse that resides within.

For many women in the far western parts of Nepal, Chhaupadi - a woman’s monthly menstrual cycle - is looked upon as a repulsive time that necessitates the expulsion of many women on their periods from their homes by loved ones only to live in cow, bull, or goat sheds during the 4-5 day period. This is a very ancient practice, which was the norm for every culture in the world at one time or another, and therefore it is up to every culture to find their own way into a modernity that is appropriate for them. We often admire ancient cultures for keeping to their own faith and traditions, and so we must accept the good with the bad and try to understand the myths behind the practices. The irony behind this is that most of these women are cast out and deemed untouchable by the very partners whom claim to love, honour and cherish their wives. The same partners whose wives feed them every month, comfort them when they are ill, encourage them when things get hard and carry and bear their children for 9 months, only to be inflicted with child birthing pain for months after the delivery. As much as science has advanced and despite the fact that scientists are now able to place men under simulation to experience similar pains, we will never be able to comprehend the full process that women will have to go through.

The Kingdom of Jumla and the War against Chhaupudi

Even though Nepal expeditiously signed and ratified the 1979 UN General Assembly Resolution on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on February 5, 1991, it took over a decade before the Nepalese Supreme Court in 2005 forced the Nepalese government to outlaw the separation between men and women during womens’ menstrual cycles. Nevertheless, in many parts of western Nepal that are distant from the capital, underdeveloped and lack real infrastructure, the realities of this torture are still on going for many women. One particular place where women are burdened with this experience is the hilly district of Jumla. The Kingdom of Jumla was one of the many kingdoms to dot Nepal before it was unified by King Prithivi Narayan Shah and later by his son Bahadur Shah. The Kingdom of Jumla was one of the most powerful kingdoms in west Nepal, repelling King Prithivi Narayan Shah’s first attack. Legend even has it that the king was injured in the battle.

One of the women fighting this long tradition of female expulsion is Ms Radha Paudel - known to many as the “female Rebel” for the way she confronts and takes on men three times her size who directly or complicity place their wives in the cow shed during their cycle. For Paudel, “it is not only inhuman for women to be treated in this way, but [considering] the fact that women spend more of their time, income and energy on building the home and looking after loved ones it surprises me that women in Jumla are put through these appalling circumstances”. For Paudel and her organisation Actions Works Nepal, the focus is on empowering the women of Jumla and the surrounding districts by putting on workshops and educational sessions. What is more concerning for Paudel is the fact that even though during the winter season the conditions in Jumla can drop below -30 degrees Celsius, many of these women are still not “allowed into the home during this period with several of the women enduring death” because of the extreme weather.

Educating to Liberate

This is not only a Hindu issue, there is a need for collective action by all women to come together and obliterate the means that facilitate this malpractice against women in all societies. According to a United Nations field bulletin on the issue, women across the globe who are placed under these conditions are often sexually assaulted during the expulsion or abducted from the huts, while others have died from asphyxiation or fire while trying to ward off the cold. The fear of menstrual blood is connected to respect for feminine power, both in its good and terrible aspects (as in life and death). The being that can give life is also the being who can take it. And so the deep-seated fear of menstrual blood, which our nice and tidy societies would deem ridiculous, is a part of the tradition of menstrual exile in Nepal. Nonetheless, there is no evidence that menstrual blood is unclean or dangerous and therefore it has often been concluded that these traditions exist largely as an entrenched cultural norm.

While places like Jumla remain stuck in the past, it is clear that one of the major ways to eradicate this problem is to edify women not only in the capital Kathmandu, where many people flock, but also in places like Jumla, where it is women who are the true human capital. Female school attendance is of particular importance, as made evident in Nepal’s gender disparate literacy rates: only 24 per cent of females are literate, compared to 52 per cent of males. For less developed nations in particular, women may embody a previously untapped source of human capital, and of those, the countries that have embraced more aggressive policies in regards to gender equality in education can be expected to see greater social and economic returns. Findings from a variety of countries indicate that educating girls is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce poverty, but dropout rates for adolescent girls still remain high.

From Curse to Exaltation

According to a study by Annamalai University in India’s southern Tamil Nadu region, the notion of women in the Hindu religion is tied to philosophies of women’s “virtue” and “purity”. Nepal is a Hindu dominated society and there is a general perception that menstruation is repulsive, untouchable, religiously filthy and ritualistically unclean. In this regard, according to a 2007 report from the Journal of World Health and Societal Politics, some religions view the impurity as strictly spiritual while others fear physical danger thus necessitating the practice of menstrual exile for women who in many religions are considered Sudra- in Hinduism; in other religions the menstruation is considered to be the result of sin. This conduct can also still be found in Judaist, Buddhist, Islamic and Christian theosophy. “Every major religion views the menstruating woman as impure, despite the fact that there is nothing inherently impure about the process.” In spite of this, the work of Nepal-based advocates like Radha Paudel that seeks to move the tide of restrictions against women away from Nepalese society continues.

Nonetheless, with the recent call by Rastriya Prajatantra, whose party has recently come to prominence, for Nepal to return to a Hindu State, there is more reason to be concerned for the future of women subjected to this practice and the need to eradicate it altogether from all parts of Nepal. Considering that leaders can use religion as a way of entrapping societies, the return of Nepal to a Hindu state would only add to the social inequality and isolation that women are already enduring. Changing a practice that is so wrapped in the history of religion itself may be an uphill battle when it comes to Chhaupadi, which is facilitated by what advocates for women call “conservative concepts.”

For many girls, simply accepting Chhaupadi as an unquestionable way of life is an everyday reality. As much as Chhaupadi is ingrained and embedded in Nepalese society, some families don't practice it at all, yet others believe the gods will punish them if they stop. This period of a woman’s life should be seen as a creative, spiritual time that will likely benefit the communities if they honour the divine feminine power. However, society as a whole needs to do more to make women feel safe and clean and to provide them with security. Women need to be allowed in temples and given the opportunity to be the leaders and the backbones of our societies.

Curbing the Problem for the next Generation

According to a UNICEF report, 95 per cent of girls who were surveyed in Nepal’s far western regions faced some sort of restriction when having their first periods. The report found that 44 per cent of the girls observed were placed under Chhaupadi - this included forbidding them from touching books, boys or men, and forcing them to sleep and eat in places separate from other family members. Several of the young girls were not allowed to attend school and not allowed to touch books for three to seven days per month. In the long run this practice may not only impact a women’s education, but also become counter productive to moving and building a stable, prosperous, and democratic Nepal. Why? Well according to the UN, this is a quick way to negatively interfere with a girl’s education, and given that women and young girls count for more than half of the world’s domestic population and hold the potential to increase a country’s GDP by almost 3 to 4 per cent, barring them from education, whatever the grounds, can be deeply harmful to national development.

Attending school has been shown to have a positive effect on girls’ lives today, as well as their futures. When girls attend school, they are more likely to marry later and to have fewer children. They are less likely to be the victim of domestic violence. Their income is more likely to be higher than those with less schooling. Paudel argues that the fight for “women’s rights will continue, but it is not a fight that I alone can win”, adding that, “we need to make sure that rather than letting the start of women’s periods mean the end of education for girls around the world, we need to shift the debate towards education and raising awareness among girls and boys, and women and men about the negative cultural impacts of menstruation on women’s education.”

Communities and societies as a whole need to do more to make sure that girls and women do not continue to grow up in retribution during their monthly cycles. Similarly, we need to prevent the vicious behaviours that exile women after they have given birth, forcing them to remain isolated with their new-born for up to 10 days - until they are considered what their society deems “clean.” As the government of Nepal continues to be entrenched in political quarrel, more and more women are being raped because men knew when and where they were menstruating and that they would therefore be alone and isolated. The government of Nepal needs to play a constructive role in this matter instead of focusing all its resources on pointless activities such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) that places economic gains at the doors of those residing in Kathmandu. More regulations need to be put into place to protect vulnerable women living under these harsh conditions, because most of the current regulations are ineffective in districts like Jumla.