Tarai women face "severe" form of violence

ANJALI SUBEDI KATHMANDU, March 17: She was just 14-year-old when her parents married her off to a man who was 20 years older than her. Shalma Khatun (name changed) from Puraina VDC of Nepalgunj, who was in seventh grade then, wanted to study against the wish of her husband and the family. The differences grew enough to result in a divorce just six months after the marriage after the husband one day pronounced in front of her -- divorce, divorce, divorce. “That´s how things go in our community. We parted ways forever after he uttered the word ´divorce´ thrice,” said 21-year-old Khatun, who was in the capital on Sunday to share her story with journalists at the National Women Commission. While her desire to study further was a major issue between the husband and wife, Khatun was never spared verbal and physical abuses throughout the six months. “Sometime they would beat me for not bringing enough dowries, sometime for not cooking well and so on. Many times he warned that he would throw acid on my face or kill me or bury me alive.” Khatun has come a long way since those dark days of her life and she is now a student of 12th grade at Saraswati Higher Secondary School in the district. She is a teacher at adult education classes and even earns some money by giving tuition classes to school children. However, she still has not been able to breathe a sigh of relief. “My failed marriage has become a burden on my parents, brothers and sisters. No marriage proposals come to me anymore and people look down upon my parents, my sisters and brothers just because my marriage failed.” There were 25 other women invited to the capital to share their stories. And each of them struggled to control her tears while narrating the horrible stories. “Women´s condition in the whole of Tarai is worrisome. They are at grave risk because of child marriage, dowry system, witchcraft, and so on. Girls and women are subjected to severe level of physical violence,” said the commission´s spokesperson Mohna Ansari. “Lack of education and awareness is responsible for the malpractices.” According to Uttam Niruala, executive director of Society for Humanism Nepal (SOCH - Nepal), women continue to face severe level of discrimination because the NGOs working for women´s issue are not able to make significant difference. “We have not been able to get to the root. We are working at the surface level. That is why despite fund and human resource invested for so many years, little change has been noticed. NGOs need to identify the root cause of violence against women and then come up with strategies to curb them,” he said. "Women everywhere face discrimination, but the situation is far more difficult in Tarai due to the deep rooted culture. It needs serious efforts to bring about change there," he added. The program was organized jointly by the women´s commission and SOCH Nepal.
Published on 2013-03-18 03:33:25     http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=51680