Tarana Burke a 45-year-old African-American civil rights activist from New York began ‘me too’ in 2006 to help survivors of sexual violence, particularly Black women and girls, and other young women of color from low-wealth communities. It was about building a community of advocates, driven by survivors, who would be at the forefront of creating solutions to interrupt sexual violence in their communities. It was started as a basic hashtag on social media and in less than 6 months the #metoo hashtag became a part of the conversation to know and speak about sexual violence. Now it has expanded to reach a global community of survivors from all walks of life and helped to de-stigmatize the act of surviving by highlighting the breadth and impact of sexual violence worldwide. Young people, queer, trans, and disabled folks, black women and girls, all communities of color have got the courage to talk about sexual violence using the #metoo platform.
The MeToo Movement Timeline Series in Nepal
The talk and confessions on sexual violence started to begin as a major part of the conversation in Nepal since 2018 when most the Nepali women started to post me too hashtags "#MeToo" and stories on their social platforms. On October 10, Kathmandu-based journalist Subina Shrestha shared her story on Twitter. She began her story as “Millenium, Nagarkot. I was an MC. The youth minister then tried to put his hand on my thigh that evening. That’s called sexual harassment”. She mentioned the fact that he harassed her when he was already accused of the same thing by another woman too. She refrained from naming the perpetrator. Then once after another similar stories started to come out on the social media.
Reports have also begun to appear in some newspapers regarding the extent of harassment and abuses, as women and young girls spoke out, albeit hesitatingly. While much of #MeToo might be limited to social media and urban centres, these tentative reports are a testament to rising consciousness among women, regardless of socio-political status, that sexual misconduct will not be tolerated and no longer stay hidden.
In the wake of budding #MeToo conversations, on October 2018 a few Nepali women exhibited courage to share their experiences on social media. Amid these, two women have accused two-time Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Keshav Sthapit of sexual harassment.
A former employee of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office, Rashmita Prajapati she was asked to leave her job and was terminated from service, without any explanation, for refusing the then Mayor’s advances. The mayor asked her to append some quality time with him which she clearly refused and because of the rejection, she lost her job. This shows that the people with power, especially men have the privilege to hire and fire the women in the service as per their convenience. Due to the lack of evidence no any attention was given to this case but later Rasmita posted about her experience on her Facebook, talking more about Keshav Sthapit and his sexual misconduct.
On October 23, 2018 similar kind of experience was highlighted again by Keshav Sthapit. A reporter named as Ujjwala Maharjan went to her Facebook and posted about the sexual misconduct while she was working with Sthapit. The incident had happened nine years ago. In 2012, Ujjwala Maharjan was working as a features writer for The Week, a weekend supplement of Republica newspaper, when she was assigned to interview Sthapit, the former Kathmandu mayor who had built a strong reputation for getting things done, barging into alleys and streets with bulldozers. After returning from the interview near the Gongabu Bus Park, Maharjan said she received a phone call from Sthapit—he invited her for lunch. “I felt really uncomfortable. I had just met him once,” Maharjan recalled in an interview with the Post. “He was talking in the manner adults do when they are trying to lure kids into doing something.” Maharjan, who was 22 at the time, said she didn’t know how to react. She told him “OK” and then hung up. But Sthapit called again—and again. “He called me at night, and it was more than once,” Maharjan said. “For at least four or five nights, he kept calling. I just didn’t want to deal with him. I just ignored him.”
Later when Keshav Sthapit was asked about the incident he called this as “Rape of Men’s Right”, which created a chaos on twitter and made many women to confess about the sexual harassment they go through on a daily basis. This increased the #metoo movement in Nepal.
Youth's movement against Nepal's ageold law for women's rights.
Downpour Against Rape on The Streets of Nepal
On October 25 2018, thousands of people poured onto the streets when 13 years old Nirmala Pant’s body was found. She was raped by a group of people. Even after the culprits were identified there were allegations that the police were trying to protect the culprits. The #JusticeForNirmala – had become the rallying cries for protesters fed up with Nepal’s woeful record of prosecuting cases of violence against women. But #MeToo has been largely absent from the ongoing debate.
The botched investigation and the ensuing protests had invoked outrage and derision. Parliament passed a ban on pornography saying it would curb violence against women, while the home minister blamed rape on capitalism. The positive thing after the protest was people started to talk more on it and the talk on sexual harrshment went global. Many women who were silent started reporting their untold stories. This led to over 100 responses being submitted within the week of the post. Women from all over Nepal came forward with their stories of sexual harassment. Surprisingly their stories ranged from harassment incidents by close family members, teachers, tutors to even strangers on public transportation.
Doubtless, it has been difficult for women to speak out even though the #MeToo movement has made their accusations credible for the first time. But most Nepali women with horrific accounts of mistreatment and cruelty are outside the public sphere, or do not want to speak out because of stigma. Leaving aside rape and domestic violence, even workplace abuse of power that #Metoo has been associated with has not come out. Long before #MeToo, actresses Shreesha Karki in 2002 and Jessica Khadka in 2012 committed suicide after their nude images were leaked – indicating that sexual abuse has been rampant in Nepal’s entertainment industry.
Teachers Held for Abusing Students
Few more incidents related to teachers came out in 2019. Head teacher of Mukunda Sen Boarding School at Bhedabari in Gaindakot Municipality-11, Nawalparasi, was arrested on the charge of sexually abusing a student. Another most disturbing incident was Tribhuvan University lecturer sexually harassing many female students for years. This came out in January 24, 2019. An investigation found previously undisclosed allegations against the 65-year-old Tribhuvan University lecturer stretching over last several years, based on interviews with three former students and their friends who had been directly advised by him. Later Maths teacher at Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidyalaya was arrested for sexually abusing young girls for decades January 25, 2019. An investigation "A pattern of abusive behavior" by Tripathee across decades, based on interviews with at least seven female students from various years who described similar tactics of molestation during his maths class.
The Second wave of #MeToo in Nepal
Even after many rape and sexual violence cases being registered in many parts of Nepal, government did not really give more importance to it. Meanwhile a sensitive case got highlighted in social media which resulted the second Metoo wave in Nepal.
On the third week of May 2022 Susmita Regmi came over to tiktok and posted about her trauma. She had participated on Miss Global International beauty pageant in 2014 and the organizer of the event Manoj Pandey called her to a hotel room and raped her. She alleged that the organizers blackmailed her with videos and photos and continued to sexually abuse her for months.
Many people came forward in the social media to support her. Protesters chanted slogans against rape and sexual violence in a protest outside
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s residence in Kathmandu. The protest is reminiscent of “Occupy Baluwatar,” – a name referring to PM's residence, a peaceful demonstration in 2013 that called for government measures against gender-based violence.
Lawyer and former member of the National Human Rights Commission, Mohna Ansari, confirmed that Nepali law only allowed a period of 365 days for rape survivors to lodge a complaint. As per the document, Nepal registered 2,144 rape cases between July 2019 and June 2020, with human rights activists highlighting that in the majority of the cases the perpetrators were men from the upper strata of the caste system, while their victims were women and girls from the marginalized communities.
With all these cases not given justice and Sushmita Regmi’s case going on on social media, people came to the streets and demanded justice. This movement has encouraged so many other women to come forward and speak about their experiences.
Both the Photos by Shankar Puri
