Category Archives: Articles
Update on Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Excellent update on the progress (of lack of) in the TRC by the Asian Center for Human Rights Justice eludes Nepal On 22 April 2012, groups representing victims of human rights violations both the security forces and the Maoists released … Continue reading
Urmila Chaudary at Oslo Freedom Forum
URMILA CHAUDHARY is a Nepalese women’s rights activist and a former domestic slave under the kamalari system, a form of debt bondage. At the age of six, she was forced to leave her family and was sold into domestic servitude. For 11 … Continue reading
CNN heroes reborn, this time: prisons
CNN heroes is building up again. Remember last year when Demi Moore – of course never a celebrity to promote the sexualisation of women herself – parachuted into a 5* hotel in Nepal for two days to tell the American … Continue reading
Nepal gets a sex shop
They’ve taken the jump from sex-education as science to sex-ed as entertainment. Here’s the new shop on the block’s website. — Nepal’s first sex shop a Sweet Secret Sex toys are still a difficult topic in many South Asian countries. In … Continue reading
20,000 squatters to be evicted
Massive eviction of squatters in ‘development’ project without resettlement plan. — Fears of violence during expected Kathmandu squatter eviction KATHMANDU, 2 February 2012 (IRIN) – A Nepalese government development plan for Kathmandu could lead to violence as the authorities seek … Continue reading
Bel bibahar
I was always under the belief that the marriage of Newari girls to the bel fruit (bel bibaha) and later to the sun was to evade ‘sati’ should her husband die before her. Bel bibaha seems great fun and the … Continue reading
Monsanto. Again.
This has been dragging on for ages. One is never sure which has the most legitimacy: Monsanto pushing for sales, or NGOs pressuring the government. Both presumably are working on foreign money… — NEPAL: Nepal’s Monsanto debate spotlights seed sovereignty … Continue reading
Internet rights and democratisation
Do you ever get the feeling that INGO researchers simply google an issue and then write about it in a shallow and non-committal manner..? — Waiting for the Nepal Spring The Right to Information Act (2006) guarantees each Nepali citizen the … Continue reading
Witchcraft and CEDAW
Witchcraft or bokshi – considered almost a joke in most parts of the world – remains a popular basis of belief in Nepal. Even amongst the so-called educated. Daily news reports women fed human excreta and others under unbearable social … Continue reading
The Newar pedicure
Fascinating postmodern investigation. — The dying art of traditional Newar pedicure “Ala,” a deep red moist mixture, a brush the size of a small finger, a tiny steel bowl– and “chhalancha,” a metal tool, spade-shaped at one end and flat … Continue reading