It’s a man’s world.

So having been taken to a shopping mall and had a coffee I have gotten over my homesickness and realised that it isn’t so much the tangible things I’m missing, its the unrepressed society. What actually set me off was a night out on Friday. I’d been meaning to write about women in Nepal for a while, but wanted to gather more information.  (Sorry Sam, just warning you, you’re going to have to do some reading)

This is a truly patriarchal society.

On Friday night I went out with some of the so-called liberal, up-and-coming young middle-class. I have never felt more anger under the surface for an entire night, and been unable to do anything about it.

It is wrong of me to make generalisations about the men in Nepal, Nepali people are very friendly, generous, and laid back, but Nepali men have this possessive, insecure, obnoxious and abusive side to them when it comes to their girlfriends. Like the girls belong to them. (Actually, having researched a bit, its standard that husbands and senior members of the household have the right to control women, and it often leads to police trying to resolve domestic abuse cases without using the law, i.e. the female should accept the situation.) What set my anger was when one seemingly rational, ‘liberal’, young Nepali man turned into a controlling, irrational freak who rang every few minutes to check on his girlfriend, believing her to be lying to him and cheating on him, then proceeded to ban her from partying that night, or going away for the weekend, then verbally abused her through text messages and down the phone, and this turns out to be acceptable behaviour, to be laughed off slightly shakenly, with every attempt to placate the arsehole, the mind boggles.

This, apparently, is normal.

And these people are the up-and-coming middle class of Nepal. These are the liberals who want a new government (or any kind of democratic government as a start), hate the corruption and the lies of the politicians, discuss philosophy and human rights, are champions for the villagers, and want progress for the country. Yet the entrenched discrimination against women is ignored, and the way they treat their girlfriends is appalling. And tolerated. I didn’t write about it straight away because I wanted to calm down and (try) to think objectively about it. But I’m not at uni anymore, and this is an editorial not a analytical paper, so I’m just going to mind-blurt.

In Nepal women are disadvantaged when it comes to work, education, health, and property.

There are approximately half a million children out of school, more than 60% of them female. 34.9% of females in the country are literate, in contrast to 62.7% of males. (2001 Census).

A report from the National Women Commission (NWC) showed that only 0.78% of houses in 68 of the 75 districts were legally owned by women – about 3 houses in every 500, 5.25% had land ownership certificates and 16% of women had a regular income. 8% of the civil-service and private sector is made up of women.

Nepali women seem to do ALL the work around home, especially in the villages where women cook, clean, do the heavy labouring and manual work, carry massive loads on their backs, can move huge rocks, and are seen as second class to males. They work harder, longer, for less reward. Other issues facing women here are human trafficking, selling young girls as indentured servants to higher-caste homes, forced marriages, caste stigma, witchery-accusations and domestic abuse.

In legal news:

• If a women does not bear her husband a son within 10 years of marriage, the man is legally allowed to take a second wife.
• In 2005 a law was passed allowing a women under 35 to apply for a passport without her parents or husbands permission.
• A bill to provide support for domestic violence victims (and differentiate domestic violence from other acts of violence – at the moment there is only a law regarding assault that can be used), come up in parliament for 13 years, was dismissed at the end of the 2008 session.
• The rural custom of banning a women from the house while she had her period was only made illegal in 2005.

There is hope though! There are many cooperatives for women in Nepal, providing employment and training, education, health care and support for their children. One is the Association for Craft Producers, who are actually a producer group that sells to Trade Aid in New Zealand, and who I am hoping to go visit next week. They have a store here in Kathmandu called Dhukuti. Another shop I visited last week with Mum was also a women’s co-operative called  Spiral Foundation in conjunction with Himalayan Healthcare. Rubbish is recycled and turned into beautiful crafts. All the net proceeds go towards healthcare, adult literacy classes, school support and income to the women in remote mountain villages.

The National Women Commission was also set up by the Nepali Government to create a ‘gender equal society.’ 2010 was pronounced by the Prime Minister last year to be the year to end violence against women as Nepal makes the transformation from traditional Hindu monarchy to modern secular state. The Himalayan Times today had more to say about the steps being taken to become a secular state, but with the erratic internet access today I’m finding it hard to get information.

The female mortality rate has gone up since the 90’s, as has the literacy rate (by 4%), women are no longer likely to die before men, and the

House of Hope’s main priority is to educate girls. One of the reasons there are mainly girls here is because of the tradition to pull girls out of school in times of financial stress, or just in general because it is thought to be pointless since the girl will move to another family when married. All the girls here are from small villages where this would have happened, not only because they have no immediate family, but because they can or will not be supported by their families.

Which reminds me, look at the little ones in their school uniforms!! So smart! So cute! So ragged, – I am going to buy a buttons, cotton and a needle and fix their shirts. I think the school tie is to hide the fact that their shirts don’t have buttons up the front! Also shoe laces. And new socks.

   

I think there’s probably some quite interesting reading to be found, and I almost wish i was still at university to go on JStor to find out. Almost. :P Actually, this did manage to load before the last power cut, and though some of that stats aren’t current it reports on many of the issues faced by women in Nepal. http://www.unescap.org/huset/women/reports/nepal.pdf