In Rural Nepal, Menstruation Taboo Claims Another Victim<br />Her husband, a police officer in Kathmandu, said he had never forced his wife to follow the chhaupadi tradition, but<br />that she insisted because women in her part of Nepal had done so for as long as anyone could remember.<br />According to the police, Ms. Bayak is the latest victim of a very old tradition in rural Nepal, in which religious Hindus believe<br />that menstruating women are unclean and should be banished from the family home.<br />Supported by By Bhadra Sharma and Jeffrey Gettleman KATHMANDU, Nepal — The last<br />time anyone saw Gauri Kumari Bayak alive, she was gathering grass and firewood.<br />In Nepal, one of Asia’s poorest countries, dozens of women<br />and girls have died in recent years from following this tradition, despite activists’ campaigns and government efforts to end the practice.<br />We don’t talk about dignity, we don’t talk about women’s rights." Bhadra Sharma reported from Kathmandu, and Jeffrey Gettleman from New Delhi.
