Women Continue To Face Sexual Abuse

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. It was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly  in 1948. The UDHR defines human rights as universal, inalienable, and inherent entitlements belonging to every person, regardless of status, based on the principle that all people are born free and equal in dignity.  However, there is a big question: 'Even though these rights are protected by international law, are they implemented in reality?'

Recently, a news story related to the Epstein files was published by the international media, which made people's eyes go wide open. The release of these files triggers a public debate globally. When I read about Jeffrey Epstein, I got furious. How can people be so cruel to children? In fact, he has been on news since 2005 when his criminal activities were exposed. That year, the Florida police started investigating him when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported that she had been molested at the millionaire's home in Palm Beach. Epstein turned to be a wealthy convicted sex offender. 

Sex trafficking 

He was arrested in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. It is said that the same year, he died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. This year the US Department of Justice has published more than three million additional pages related to the Epstein files. What is surprising in this document is that many high-profile world people are listed there who seemed to be somehow connected to Jeffrey Epstein. These people include Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sarah Ferguson, Ehud Barak, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and many others. 

Appearing in the documents, however, does not mean that there is any implication of wrongdoing. Still, these people may be under surveillance until the investigation is complete. We all know that America is one of the most democratic countries in the world. In such a country, children are also not safe and what can we expect in places like ours? Human trafficking is the biggest problem in Nepal as well, where women and girls are the most vulnerable. Anuradha Koirala, a social activist and the founder of Maiti Nepal, has been fighting against this issue for years and the problem remains the same. Who doesn't know about a 13-year old girl, Nirmala Panta? She was found raped and murdered in 2018. Sadly, justice for her has not been delivered yet.

The other day, I heard a terrible story of a woman from Arghakhachi who was extremely tortured physically and mentally by her own husband. She was kept hostage in a house by him. She was sexually abused every day, because of which her vagina was torn up. She could not hold either her urine or stool, as both of them came out from the same organ. To terrorise her, the husband used to put a knife to her chest while sleeping. The couple had two children and the father had threatened them not to tell anything to anyone; if they did, he would kill their mother and them as well. So, the children were terrified. 

Luckily, the son was able to take a photograph of her mother with a knife on her chest and show it to the local social activists. Eventually, she was rescued by them after living a hellish life for nearly one and a half years. Let's take another case of Shobha Pathak, who has a lot of allegations against a CPN-UML leader, Mahesh Basnet. She claims that she got married to Basnet but he denied the fact and abandoned her. She shouts now and then that she has not got justice. She even blames the KP Sharma Oli-led government for covering Basnet's truth. She is still fighting her battle in the court. 

These are only a few examples. Every day, there are news stories published which are related to child marriage, child abuse, forced marriage, dowry, rape, domestic violence, murder, sexual harassment or gender discrimination. In most of the cases, females are the victims. We talk about Women's rights or children's rights but these rights may not be experienced by all of the concerned people. A UN report shows that around 50,000 women and girls worldwide were killed in 2024, most by family members. The same report says that a French woman, Gisele Pelicot, was drugged by her husband and raped by dozens of men while she was unconscious for over nine years. 

Domination 

Whether it is in Nepal or elsewhere in the world, it is seen that more powerful people dominate the less powerful ones. Historically, this power has been given to men based on patriarchal norms. The label attached to women as the 'weaker sex' seems to be persistent at some level. This may be the reason why some men mistreat women and girl children. They should not forget that everybody has equal rights in all spheres of life. 

Human civilization has come this far but the savagery of the ancient society follows in one or another form. Even if this is the case, we should not stop raising our voice continuously against each and every sort of discrimination until we are heard and appropriate action is taken. At the same time, we should be watchful that some people always want to silence our voice to prove their superiority or power. The fight for human rights goes on and on.

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, March 6, 2026 ) 

[The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]  

Are We Enjoying Democracy?

 

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, said that democracy is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. If we explore the origin of the word 'democracy', we find that it has been derived from the Greek word 'demokratia' where 'demos' stands for 'the people' and 'kratia' for 'power' or 'rule'. 

So, in very simple terms, democracy can be defined as a system of government that is decided by the people via election. They vote for representatives and send them to parliament, which is a country's legislative or law-making body. The parliament develops different systems to run the country smoothly. If we see the history of democracy, it goes back to the fifth century BC. During that time, it was first introduced in Athens by Cleisthenes of Athens, who is considered the father of democracy. 

History 

Since then, there has been the practice of democracy in the world in different forms. Nepal has its own history of democracy. For the first time, with the help of political leaders, such as B. P. Koirala, Ganesh Man Singh, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, and many others, the late king Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah took an initiative to establish democracy in Nepal on the 7th of Falgun, 2007 BS or 1951 AD. This step was taken to topple the 104-year-long autocracy of the Rana regime.  So, this year, we, the Nepali people, are celebrating the 75th democracy day. 

During these years, Nepal has gone through different democratic movements, and people have experienced a lot of ups and downs. The Nepali Congress-led government ruled the country for about a decade. Unfortunately, this government was removed by the late King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah in 1960 AD to introduce the Panchayati system, which he claimed was a suitable system for the nation. But people started to feel that this system of monarchism pushed democracy back. 

There are different indicators of democracy. Some of them include sovereignty, fundamental human rights, equality, and individual freedom, open access to information, freedom of speech, free press, people's participation in politics, multi-party system, free election, independent judiciary, transparent government, decentralisation, and others. Since the Nepali people were deprived of all these facilities, they were not happy with the Panchayati system.

As a result of their dissatisfaction, there was a joint civil resistance in 1990 AD. It was led by the United Left Front, which turned out to be the CPN UML and Nepali Congress. After a long struggle, eventually they were successful in overthrowing the Panchayati system and establishing a constitutional monarchy, which seemed to be a form of democracy. 

Although the government system was changed and people got limited access to democracy through a multi-party system, they were not fully satisfied. This was reflected in the Maoist rebellion in 1996 AD, and led to an armed civil war. Once again, democracy was at stake in Nepal. The people's war lasted for a decade, and it resulted in thousands of deaths and widespread destabilisation, particularly in the countryside. 

In the meantime, the Royal Palace Massacre occurred, in which King Birendra and much of the royal family were killed. Following this tragedy, King Gyanendra ascended to the throne. He dissolved the government and assumed absolute power in 2005, which invited much public criticism and opposition from political parties. This led to yet another movement in 2006 AD. It forced the king to step down. Subsequently, Parliament was reinstated, and the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord with the Maoists formally ended the decade-long civil war.

Although democracy was restored this way, it had not been implemented as people had expected it to be. Three major parties emerged - Nepali Congress, CPN UML, and Maoist - to rule the nation. They took charge of the country turn by turn. Gradually, corruption, nepotism, anarchism, inequality, unemployment, brain-drain, and what not started to foster. When all this reached a climax, the Gen Z revolution occurred in 2025. We all know the rest.

This snapshot of the political history of Nepal shows that more than seventy years have been employed and spent on democracy. It seems like the movement started against the autocracy of the Rana dynasty has not fully achieved its goals yet. Dr. Tara Nath Ghimire had conducted a research study on 'Democratic movements and challenges in Nepal' and found several reasons for the failure of democracy in Nepal. First of all, the political parties were unable to teach people that the country is bigger than the party. 

Greed for position and power

The Nepali citizens could not be emotionally organised due to the leaders' greed for position and power. Secondly, the political leaders have lost respect for morality. The rights and duties of citizens are not delineated. The general people are also prone to immorality due to the unethical actions of political leaders. Another reason Mr. Ghimire points out is that the media also has an important role in shaping democracy, but unfortunately, most of them are run by political parties, and this leads to bias.

Once again, Nepali people are at a threshold of general elections to elect the members of the House of Representatives. I hope this time people vote for the right candidates who understand the real meaning of democracy and allow all the citizens to enjoy the system freely. The elected political leaders should keep in mind that democracy is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It, in fact, protects people's power, not the political leaders'.  Happy Democracy Day to all who are in Nepal and abroad.    

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, February 20, 2026 ) 

[The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]  

Collective Fight Ends Gender Inequality

 

One of my college students asked me, out of the blue, 'Ma'am, does patriarchy still exist in Nepal?' I thought she was simply curious about the issue, so I responded in a normal tone, 'Yes, of course! You'll find a lot of examples of this if you observe our society closely.' Then she opened up about how she was discriminated against by her employers in her workplace, only based on her gender. Her story made me think about the issues of gender balance or gender equity. Luckily, she is a strong-headed girl, so she fought for her rights and raised her voice high to teach a lesson to those handful of biased people. Unfortunately, not all Nepali women may not have the guts like my student to stand for themselves or speak up when they experience gender differences.

We find gender equity only on paper but in reality, there is still a practice of male chauvinism in most of the cases in Nepal.  Since historically, culturally and socially, Nepal has been a patriarchal society, it seems to be very hard to maintain gender balance. Apart from in some exceptional situations, people have a deep-rooted belief system that men are superior to women in every sphere of life, and this belief will not go away easily. Some examples of discrimination between girls and boys include chhaupadi, dowry system, rape, property rights, domestic roles, gender-based violence, citizenship hurdles, limited political representation, limited economic participation, workplace harassment and many more. 

Constructed differences 

Although the law has protected women's rights, the implementation side has not been working effectively. A research study, conducted by Pranab Dahal, Sunil Kumar Joshi and Katarina Swahnberg in 2022, also confirms gender inequality in Nepal. Their findings suggest that the subjugation of women occurs due to practices based on gender differences, constricted life opportunities, and internalisation of constructed differences among women. They have developed a concept of power-play, which is identified as a cause and consequence of women's subordination and violence. This means that the ultimate power needed to run the Nepali society is still in the hands of men. 

Women have been struggling to share that power for a long time; for this, they have even sacrificed their lives. Yogmaya Neupane (1867 - 1941 AD) is a great example who is considered Nepal's first revolutionary woman. Yogmaya was a spiritual leader and social reformer who ended her life along with 68 of her followers in protest against the social conditions of her time by jumping into the wild floods of the river Arun. Her protest was directed against the social practices that had been highly divided along gender and caste hierarchies. 

Nepali women, at different times, have pushed for changes around them, winning small battles, one at a time but they have not succeeded yet. Currently, there are many women, such as Anuradha Koirala, Bandana Rana, Uma Devi Badi, Durga Sob and others who are working tirelessly in the field of gender equality.

While I was reading an essay by Bonnie Smith-Yackel, I just thought about women in our society. In her narrative essay, 'My Mother Never Worked,' Bonnie, an American author, has depicted her homemaker mother's picture very beautifully. The writer wants to make her readers aware of how a society devalues unpaid household chores and farm work. Her mother, who devoted all her life to taking care of the house, raising her children and doing difficult farm work, was sadly deprived of Social Security benefits. According to federal law, only those workers are entitled to such benefits who have a paid job. 

Although the author tries her best to convince the Social Security officer by saying that her mother worked harder throughout her life than anybody else, so she must have got death benefit, the officer does not budge. Instead, she responds, 'Well, that's right. Your mother didn't work, you know.' This response breaks a reader's heart. In the same vein, another American writer, Sandra Cisneros, has written an essay 'Only Daughter'. In this essay, she has shown how difficult it is to be a daughter in a Mexican family where there are already six sons. Her brothers did not want to play with her in public because she was a girl, so Sandra was isolated throughout her childhood. 

Her father used to believe that she was going to be someone's wife. She recalls how h e thought college was good for girls to find a husband but not to gain knowledge or education. However, Sandra was determined to make her father understand that his daughter is a writer; she worked hard to make him proud but he did not seem to value her. She writes, '...Everything I have ever written has been for him, to win his approval even though I know my father cannot read English words.'

Women's struggles 

I am using these essays to make a point that not only Nepali women are struggling to get recognised but women around the world are also facing the same problem. There are different movements in world history to secure women's rights or gender equality. For instance, the Women's Suffrage Movement (also known as the first-wave feminist movement), second-wave feminism, third-wave and networked feminism. The UN is also working in the same direction.

An Asian Development Bank report highlights that Nepal has taken progressive steps toward greater gender equality throughout the past five decades of planned development. Important legal amendments have been made to strengthen women’s rights in key areas such as citizenship, inheritance, and anti-trafficking. Yet, there is gender-based discrimination in all walks of life. So, we must fight against this problem collectively. Thanks to my student who stood up for herself and fought against gender-based discrimination at her workplace. We need more girls like her who are aware of their rights and capable of taking a stand whenever situations call for. 

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, January 9, 2026 ) 

[The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]