Dang: A World Away in Western Nepal

Editor’s Note: This is the first of two blogs about my recent field visit with WHR to Western Nepal.

Regional Map of WHR Single Women Groups

As I entered my second week as an intern at Women for Human Rights, or WHR, I was surprised with a unique opportunity that I could not say no to: tagging along for a field visit to the Dang and Kailali district offices in the Midwestern and Far Western regions. Finally, a chance to see the real Nepal.

So after agreeing to meet the next morning at the Kathmandu airport I was not sure what to expect but knew that I was in for an amazing trip. At the airport, I met Tracy, WHR Program Manager, and Chitra Raj Joshi, WHR Finance Officer, and when we arrived in Dang we met our third traveling partner, Sambida Regmi, WHR Program Officer. Prior to the trip I had said maybe collectively twenty words to them, but that changed quickly as I was eager to learn about Nepali culture and they were more than willing to share.

If you really want to get an inside cultural perspective, I would suggest traveling with country natives for a week and you will learn more than you realized there was to know. After learning about the traditional Hindu practice of cleansing your body on Tuesdays and offering eleven blades of grass and ladoo to the Lord Ganesh, finally understanding why Nepalis always leave communal shower shoes in front of the bathroom, and watching Hindi music videos and trying to emulate the dances, it occurred to me more than once that this is the way to travel.

Street scene in Dang, Midwestern region, Nepal

 During our first day in Dang, a district in the Midwestern region of Nepal, we met with board members of Dang’s WHR Single Women Group, who are widows now leading the charge in the push for women’s rights and equality in their district. We sat in a circle on thin mats in the office’s small meeting room, which was only lit by the light shining through the windows since the electricity was off (Nepal is on a load shedding system and has frequent blackouts of electricity). It was inspiring to hear the heartwrenching stories of these women and then to see them empowered and acting as agents of change for themselves and their community.

WHR Single Women Group board meeting in Dang

Laxmi Bishta, a Conflict-Affected Widow who serves as a board member, shared her story with us. She said that her husband had served as a policeman in Dang during the ten-year civil war. At the time, the Maoists—the politically motivated rebel group—began to target government officials and police, and local Maoists began to threaten Laxmi‘s husband and family. Eventually her husband was so concerned for his family’s safety that he left the police force. About one year later, despite having left the police, several men asked her husband for money and when he refused they shot him three times in broad daylight. His wife had been called to the hospital, but her husband had already died before she arrived.

Laxmi filed a complaint with the police after the incident, but nothing happened. This was seven years ago. Impunity has become the norm in Nepal for crimes that were committed during the insurgency because they were so widespread and often the perpetrators of the crimes are now in positions of power and authority. Many victims fear going to the authorities at all for this reason.

Dang board members (Laxmi second from left)

To this day, Laxmi still does not know who killed her husband. It is difficult to think about her husband’s death because she has three children and works as a tailor to fund their education. She said she wants to move on but cannot because she wants to know the identity of the men who killed her husband and why he was killed. She said if she had the chance to file the case in the Transitional Reconciliation Commission she would, but what she really wants the most for now is peace of mind.

Laxmi‘s story is one of the thousands of women who were affected by the ten-year conflict. That is why the work of WHR and its Transitional Justice Network is so crucial. By visiting the WHR district office in Dang I was able to feel the power of grassroots advocacy at such a raw level and get a glimpse into the everyday struggles that single women in Nepal are facing.

Dang's Youth Information Center 

The next day we attended a paralegal training held in Dang’s VDC training hall, about a fifteen-minute ride outside of town. The building and adjacent Youth Information Center—which was one room that provided Nepali pamphlets and information about reproductive health—were located on a dirt road surrounded by wheat fields and green hills. The participants for the training ranged from adolescent girls dressed in jeans and sweaters to older single women dressed in traditional saris.

Dang VDC Training Hall where paralegal training took place

Although my understanding of the training was definitely inhibited by a significant language barrier, I was able to get the gist of things by Tracy translating every few minutes. The women and girls were learning about international human rights instruments such as U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 that secures their legal rights and role in the peacebuilding process. The women’s inheritance and citizenship rights were reviewed as well as their right to file for cases of domestic abuse.

WHR paralegal training in Dang

After reading about how Resolution 1325 is used as a tool of empowerment for women around the world, it was sort of an out-of-this-world experience to see it actually put to use in the context of Dang, Nepal. Amid the dusty roads and expansive fields, I could only admire the resilience of these women whose husbands had died and who are now challenging the status quo of a traditionally patriarchal society. They are determined to change their own destiny and to begin building a foundation for their daughters and the next generation of women in Nepal.