Chapter 1: Journey To Impurity
Transforming Menstrual Restrictions In Nepal
In Nepal, and according to Hinduism, the entry into adulthood of a woman is tied to a loss of purity. In some rural areas, menstrual women are exiled for a week, a practice known as Chhaupadi Partha. When they are on their period they are not allowed to enter their houses, visit the temples, attend festivities, cook, touch specific fruits and trees, or eat with their own family. Sometimes, they are not even allowed to look or talk to any male relative. Every year, women die from following this tradition, bitten by animals or choked from the fumes in the small, non-ventilated huts they stay in during their periods.
Surekha Kunwar, a 14-year-old girl from Achham district, poses for a portrait inside a goth or hut during her first period. This little mud house was built up several years ago in order to keep menstruating women away from their own houses. For the first time in Surekha’s life, she will be considered impure and forced to live in this place for 7 days.
When Surekha Kunwar realized that she had her first period, she was ashamed and tried to hide it. “I don’t feel impure or untouchable”, she wrote during the first bleeding days of her life..
Narpata Boudha, a Nepalese 47-year-old woman from a remote far western village in Achham district, shows the only instruments she is allowed to use when she is on her period. Menstruating women are not allowed to touch any cooking instrument or the tap water or fountains. They can only use a specific bowl and dish to drink the water and the food that the neighbors might put on it. They can’t eat in the community or partake in any social events.
In most of the villages, women share the goth. These spaces are commonly not well ventilated, and at dozens of women and girls have died in recent years from following this tradition.
Views from a Chhaupadi hut in Achham district.
Suntala (right) next to the Chhaupadi hut where she is sleeping. In the back, her grandmother, who is the defensor of the practice, and who taught Suntala how to practice it.
Dive with a friend sharing a Chhaupadi hut during their periods in a remote village of Achham district, Nepal.
A healer performs a domestic ritual inside a home in the Achham district. Healers are believed to cure the "impurity" caused by menstruation. "When I walk near a menstruation hut, I feel sick and dizzy", he says.
According to Hinduism, menstruation is considered a punishment from the Gods for the women’s sins. Most of the villagers believe that if a woman doesn't follow this tradition, they will be punished with misfortune, diseases, or even death.
Surekha Kunwar poses for a portrait inside the hut during her first period. “I can’t believe that this is going to happen every month of my life”.
Surekha Kunwar perched upon a tree to eat some fruits some months after her first period. In some areas, menstruating women are not allowed to touch trees like the Peepal tree, a tree that represents the God Vishnu, and speciffic fruits.
Although the Chhaupadi Partha has existed for decades, Nepali society is trying to change. In August 2017, for the first time in history, the country criminalized the isolation of the menstrual women with a three-month jail sentence or a 3,000 rupee fine ($30), or both, for anyone that forces a woman to follow the custom.
A new generation is reinventing traditions, making them their own. Some women and men from rural areas have started to question these practices and became activists, and a growing number of them lead organizations and are working in rural areas, creating a new awareness and teaching about menstrual hygiene.
Some villages are already liberated from the practice. Last May 2018, Menstrual Hygiene Day was celebrated the first time in Kathmandu with the theme Education about menstruation changes everything. "Since I was a kid I have it clear, I was not going to go to the hut to sleep as my mother and sisters", says Radha Paudel, a Menstrual Activist of Nepal and an author. "I'm sure the solution is in the education and in the younger minds, and that step by step we're going to achieve what we are dreaming of".
The activist Gomati Joshi (left), teaches a class on menstrual hygiene, Chhaupadi and early marriage in a remote village in the Baitadi district. She has been working to change the stigma surrounding menstruation all over the country.
Surekha Kunwar studies inside her house some months after she had her first period. In her neighbor village, the school is placed near a temple. There, scared of insulting the Gods, menstrual girls usually don’t attend class. Hygiene conditions in most of the schools don’t help with tackling this stigma, so girls just stay home, scared of getting publicly shamed.
Surekha Kunwar, watching some Nepalese and Indian movies in her friend's smartphone in her house.
In Kathmandu Valley, a growing number of women are re-interpreting this practice and trying to change it. A lot of them, which are from a rural background, has come to learn how can they do it, and then coming back to the same rural areas to implement it.
In a village near Kathmandu Valley, Radha Paudel, a Menstrual Hygiene Activist, and author draw the feminine reproductive system on a blackboard at a class on menstruation. She has been empowering women in rural and urban areas to fight against all forms of Chhaupadi for the past 10 years.
On 28 May 2018, Menstrual Hygiene Day is celebrated for the first time in Kathmandu. The main motto of the day is “Education about menstruation changes everything”. Different actors perform various acts for encouraging women to maintain personal hygiene and to transform the Chhaupadi Partha.
At the end of Radha's lecture, all the assistants had crossed the hands and promised "we will talk about menstruation at home and in our communities".
Swostika Sharma, a 15-year-old student from Kathmandu, draws during an awareness program that Radha Paudel Foundation has organized with the best art students of three different schools. They are participating in a contest to illustrate the motto “Menstruation Is Everyone's Business”.
When Anushree Bhatta had her first period, the family celebrated it with a cake "Happy First Menstruation, Anushree". It is the first time they have celebrated it like this, thanks to the support of an activist who lives in their building, in Kathmandu.
Anuja Bhatta, a 16-year-old from Kathmandu, is helped by her mother to wear a saree, a typical female garment, before assisting to a wedding ceremony in Kathmandu. Anuja Bhatta has been one of the first members of the family who is not practicing the Chhaupadi, thanks to the presence of an activist who lives in the building.
Visitors take a selfie in Swayambhunath, an ancient religious temple in Kathmandu Valley. The flood of tourists coming in along with the power of the new technologies are inspiring young Nepalese women and men to adopt a different way of life, and are finding ways to combining it with the old Nepalese culture. In Nepal arranged marriages between the same cast are the most common system, but love marriages are becoming more popular every day, especially in urban areas.
Anushree's Bhatta, Anuja's sister, is the youngest member of the family. When she's on her period, she doesn't have to sleep separately from her brother anymore. The only restriction she is practicing is not cooking or going to the temple.
Kabita Khdka, a 23-year old woman, lies in her room in a village in Kathmandu Valley. This little construction, separated from the main house, was built after the 2015 earthquake as a second house. Once the family returned to the old one, it’s purposed it’s been to provide a safe space for the women of the family to spend their periods in. Kabita works for an Organisation and takes care of the foreign volunteers that come in and out.