Nepal: Women Sit Down for Teacher's Freedom

From 1990 to 2005, Nepal was a constitutional monarchy retaining much power and limiting the effectiveness of political parties. In 1996, Maoists who had been shut out of the political game went underground and instigated a civil war against the monarchy and mainstream political groups. As is often the case in war, civilians inevitably were caught up in the conflict and suffered at the hands of both sides.

 

In August 2005 one group of village women in the eastern part of the country successfully stood up to the army and demanded the freedom on a community member using nonviolent measures, which has then led them to tackling other issues affecting their community. The women belong to the caste of ‘dalits’, traditionally called ‘untouchables’ in English, meaning their lives are a constant struggle against disadvantage and prejudice.

 

In the women's village an elderly and disabled teacher had been providing lodging to a student. One day the young man left to visit his parents but he never arrived. His disappearance led the army to suspect that he had run away to join up with the Maoist guerrillas and that the teacher was connected to the rebels as well. Soon after the young man had gone missing, the army came and took the teacher to the barracks where they beat him, tortured him, and interrogated him. Not receiving any satisfactory answers, they put him in a deep hole in the ground and would not allow anyone near.

 

Word travelled round the village about the teacher’s imprisonment and about 20 village women went en mass to the barracks and requested his release. The officer in charged refused stating that they would hold the teacher until they got the information they needed from him.

 

In protest of the man’s detention, the women sat silently under the open sky and without food for two days outside the barracks. Many of them carried their children in slings tied across their backs. After two days the commander gave in and said he would release the teacher providing the women gave certain guarantees and took responsibility for him. 

 

The women agreed and asked the officer to apologise and touch the teacher’s feet (a traditional gesture of apology), which remarkably he did as well as giving him a small compensation. The women’s strength so impressed the commander that subsequently he consulted the leaders of the women's group before taking other actions in the community.

 

Since this empowering experience, the village women have gone on to tackle issues of domestic violence in their community.

 

In November and December 2006, TTT staff member Steve Whiting travelled to Nepal to participate in a nonviolence and social change Training for Trainers programme in collaboration with QPSW's South Asia Programme and the South Asia Peace Alliance (SAPA). This is one of the stories shared with him during that visit. Visit www.southasiapeacealliance.org to learn more about the outcomes of that training and SAPA's work.