Teej & Pathetic Plight Of Women

I was overwhelmed by a news report on the Nepalese Hindu women’s festival Haritalika Teej in your sister Gorkhapatra dated September 2, 2000. The story pictured the pathetic plight of Nepal’s women who even in this modern age do not abstain from observing the traditional rituals and rites. And it is clear from the ironic condition of the woman who was living her life within the four walls of the gaol. Teej witnesses women clad in all red attire thronging temples, especially Lord Pashupatinath, for the well-being of their respective husbands. But ironically, as evidenced from the example of the imprisoned woman who is fasting for longetivity of the husband who has almost abandoned her and is living with another wife, the tradition has compelled her to take the pain of fasting for one who stands for her exploitation. I think it is high time that Nepal’s women who are under the male domination took a giant step towards their physical and intellectual emancipation from the boundary drawn by the so-called male chauvanists.

Radhika Timilsina
Kirtipur, Kathmandu