Descending Feminism in Nepal

In the place where the word ‘feminism’ itself is given high amount of hate, the misinterpretation of the word is highly visible because feminism is simply taken as word that goes against men.

Before looking at the changes in status of woman from long time, let’s get good view of what feminism actually is. Feminism is a moment which originally gained power back in 1970s and is concept of gender equality which is ancient in nature. The issue of woman’s right and liberalism are the central idea of feminism. While it has different faces of development, it also has different types and the only type which strongly believes in the concept of providing special treatment to woman is radical feminism while every other type suggests equality.

Coming to the concept of Feminism in Nepal; Nepal always provided special places to females ever since any history is found. It is said that no decisions were made without the consent of females in the territory and even household decisions were such. Even though woman were not provided with great status in society they were not just confined to the household works, they had a place to keep their opinions where those opinions were recognized and respected.

Kirant Dynasty which is said to have great position in Nepal used to provide great status to woman and worship them in the form of their goddesses. In fact, rituals were highly performed by woman and children and woman were given rights to conduct them. After the downfall of kirant regime, woman in licchavi period were given special place for contribution in society. During licchavi period there were equal status to male and female both in state ruling and household decisions. Females could choose whom they want to marry and were considered better halves of men they marry. Even the first ever written abhilekh of Nepal, ‘Chabahil ko abhilekh’ was written by a female which did mention she wanted to have satitwa in her life which is highly said to be misinterpreted by mandevko abhilekh. Queens were provided highest form of respect and woman were allowed to recognize their birth family even after marriage.

With such strong places of female in Nepal’s history the status right now is at chaos, why?

After Ranas took over and started suppressing people their major source of entertainment were females and beside providing no place to citizen, females were not only refrained from providing power but also were used physically and provided with no say or even the right to be involved in works other than households. Even though some woman who were the wives of suppressors did get some places for says, the common people and maids in palaces were highly exploited. After great fall of woman’s status with the influence of alien policies together with exploitation of ranas woman’s status still seems to be decreasing.

Before 2052 BS which doesn’t seem very far from now females were not provided with parental equal parental property than that of man, its only after Meera Dhungana v. HMG which led to equal right for females in parental property. And we can still see disparity in Nepal’s law, for instance, in section 219 of Muluki Criminal code 2074, it is visible how punishment for rape decreases with the increasing age of females; which clearly shows on which status woman are standing. And it is not true that Nepal lags a lot behind in the context of feminism, instead, it seems developing a lot.

However, it’s just law that is developing not the country itself. Woman in Sudurpaschim are already married and having kids by the age where others join colleges and men still ask females to be inside kitchen and serve them throughout woman’s life.

Every woman in Nepal does have story to share about how they had to run through the situations of being objectified and every woman is judged by society over it. Instead of blaming the man, a female gets blamed because they are too forward and it’s just not laws at this point but society and mind-sets which need to be amended as the status of woman in Nepal seems to be descending instead of moving forward.