During 5 days in a month, Sofalta Rokaya must leave the room and the bed in his family home in Nepal to the west. He had to stay at home, sleeping in cows allowed.
Stone enclosure it was not a comfortable place. Dark, seemed frozen in winter, stifling not playing in the summer, filled with feathers fall, straw, cow dung, and insects.
All he had to do it during menstruation. No doubt, the 16-year girl was afraid to tell her parents that she began coming months.
"That means staying in a cowshed, did not imagine I could do it," said Sofalta, as quoted by the Guardian .
"I find it difficult here - it smells of cow dung is not playing. Sometimes I trampled by animals. My whole body was filled with dirt and straw," he said.
Sofalta is one among thousands of girls and women in Nepal who practiced chhaupadi - exiled to the cattle shed or shack while, for what they called a rite of purification 'during menstruation or after childbirth (postpartum).
Chhaupadi govern what can be eaten a woman, where she could sleep, with whom he may interact, where he could go, and anyone who may be touched.
Sofalta not allowed to enter the house, forbidden to cook, touching his parents, went to the temple or school, or eat anything except bread or rice marinated.
It is said that those who violate it can bring misfortune and even death for their families.
Not only that, it is believed, if he touches the plants, then the plants will wilt; if he drew water then the well will be dry; and if he was picking fruit so that the fruit will not mature.
"If you remain in the house, then we will have pain because god would not allow it," said Gita Rokaya, another woman who lived in the village Disrik Sanigaun in Jumla.
Difficult Changing Old Tradition
Chhaupadi - or which translates as 'a creature that can not be touched' has been practiced for centuries in Nepal, as well as some of India and Bangladesh.
Although it has been banned through the Supreme Court decision in 2005, the practice is still carried out in the western part of Nepal, where the pace of development, education, and gender equality is still low.
Radha Paudel, president of the grassroots organization Action Works Nepal (Awon) said that 95 per cent of girls and women of Nepal in the central region to the West are victims of practices chhaupadi. Most exiled in a cowshed.
Meanwhile, in the area of Kathmandu, where the price of land is very expensive, and residents may not have a cattle pen, the family would rent a room so that women who are menstruating or postpartum can stay apart.
Chhaupadi associated with psychological and physical disorders experienced womanhood - as a result. Awon Research found that 77 percent of women feel insulted during menstruation, and two-thirds of respondents admitted loneliness and fear of living in a cowshed.
The UN report adds to the dark side chhaupadi. Such practices can lead to diarrhea, pneumonia, respiratory disease, the danger of attack snakes, wild animals, and drunken men. Also potentially triggering incidents of harassment and rape.
Sequestration is also correlated with a high mortality rate of mothers and newborns.
Laxmi Raut described how he and his newborn son suffered from extremely cold temperatures when they were eliminated in the cowshed.
"My son survived until the 18th day. He died after suddenly got the flu," he said.
After losing her daughter, Raut view of chhaupadi changed. He believes women should stay in their own homes, rather than discarded.
But not easy to change old traditions. It is felt Sandhya Chaulagain of WaterAid Nepal , in collaboration with local partners to eradicate the practice.
Slowly, NGOs and activists are making progress by reducing chhaupadi, through education and advocacy programs targeting men, women and traditional medicine practitioners - to support the practice of hygienic and sanitary menstrual better.
In certain villages, now a free zone chhaupadi, others are starting to flatten the seclusion hut they had built earlier.
Chaulagain says it has a strategy to eradicate the practice. Instead of approaching the elderly who are so deeply believe in the myth, the activists working with the young people.
"Our program focuses on young people, as agents of change and leaders in the future," he said.
0 Response to "Myth Bearer Shit The Girl Forced to Live in the Cage Cattle"
Posting Komentar