A Nepali mother and her two children were found dead Wednesday morning, after being exiled from their family home as part of a criminalized practice where women and girls are made to sleep alone during their menstrual cycle.
In sub-zero winter temperatures, Amba Bohora, 35, and her sons aged seven and nine, are believed to have constructed a small fire inside a tiny wooden hut close to their home in rural western Nepal. By the morning all three were dead.
“They are suspected to have died from smoke inhalation,” Uddhab Singh Bhatt, the area’s senior police officer, told CNN.
Bohora was taking part in chhaupadi, a common practice in the west of the country in which women, considered unclean during menstruation, are forbidden from touching other people, food that may be consumed by others, cattle and even books.
According to the legislation, anyone found forcing a woman into a menstrual hut will be sentenced to three months imprisonment or a $30 fine.
Activists believe that the formulation of a new law will not be able to end the centuries-old ritual.
They say menstruation needs to be destigmatized in society, and men and women alike need to be educated about the potential dangers of the tradition.
Authorities are considering whether to charge Bohora’s family under the 2018 law, according to Baral.
Source: CNN