<img width="528" height="668" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8509c7e80680e08784ejpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Twelve years after she left Nepal, and after a dramatic rescue from the home of her abusive Saudi employer, Lilamaya Dhimal (pictured above) returned to a sunny Kathmandu airport on Wednesday morning to say: "I feel safe now, at least I know I will live."   She was saved from a cruel man of the house in a well-planned rescue in the town of Tabuk by her brother, the Nepal embassy and other Nepalis. She is ecstatic to be back and reunited with her family in Jhapa, who had given up hope that she was alive.The Nepal Consulate in Jeddah, where she had been sheltering, told her to get up at 9AM on Tuesday to catch her flight via Kuwait. But the anticipation was too much for her.“I was so excited that I could barely sleep. I was up by 3AM and was on the phone with my children,” Lilamaya said after landing.Lilamaya Dhimal (who is also known by her alias Sharmila Kisan Magar) had been out of touch with her family for over a decade since first going to Saudi Arabia in 2009. One day, by sheer chance, she connected with a man from Nepal on IMO, and pleaded for help.He shared her contact information with his sister in Jhapa, who lived near Lilamaya’s house and was kind enough to go to her home to pass on her details to her family.“It was such a shock when I received a call and heard my brother say दिदी,” Lilamaya recalls. “I learnt that my husband, who was in ill health and drank, passed away three years back. My children were young when I left, but I have six grandchildren now. I was out of touch for years, and they had given me up for dead.”Lilamaya’s employer was abusive and did not pay her. When she couldn’t bear the torture, Lilamaya used to ask him what they would do if she died in Saudi Arabia? His response — a nonchalant “Maafi mushkil” (no problem). <img width="528" height="960" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8529c7e80680e08784fjpeg.jpg" alt="">“I landed in the hands of a monster,” she says. “All five of the family’s children were below 10 years and were quite a handful. They were gullible and emulated their parents in mistreating me. My days would begin before 6 AM and end after 1 AM.”Lilamaya’s brother, Hem Raj Magar, was based in the UAE and helped coordinate her rescue via the Riyadh-based Nepal Embassy which referred her case to the Jeddah-based Consulate.“My sister can barely read and she had no idea where she was in Saudi Arabia,” says Hem Raj. “It took me a long time and several failed attempts so she could finally send her WhatsApp location.”Labour Attache Prem Upadhyaya at the Consulate in Jeddah recommended that she also send pictures of nearby landmarks. Lilamaya  managed to sneak out of the house one day and took pictures of a neighbourhood shop. That was enough to begin the rescue effort.“The location was in Tabuk, over 1,200 km from where we are based,” says Upadhyaya. “So we mobilised Nepalis in the town to confirm the location as we hit the road. We advised her to come outside the next morning once her employer had left for work. We instantly recognised her and took her away in our vehicle.”Lilamaya recalls her nervousness, “My heart was pounding as I was scared I would be caught. I managed to take two small bags of my clothes even though I had been advised not to bring anything.” <figure><img width="588" height="292" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8549c7e80680e087850jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="640" height="383" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8569c7e80680e087851jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Consulate staff coordinated with Saudi authorities to ensure that Lilamaya was fairly compensated. “The employer was a no-show at the Labour Office on the first day but he came in the second day,” says Upadhyaya. “After much back and forth, they have finally paid her 30,000 Riyal (Rs 953,000).” Lilamaya said she had been paid for the first few years, although she could not recall the exact details of the time period and amount. While her exit documentation was being sorted out and she got compensated, Lilamaya lived under the protection of the Nepal Consulate in Jeddah and Non-Resident Nepali Association in Tabuk, and then in the Consulate for over one month.She recalls, “One day, there were many Nepalis who had come to the Consulate to talk to me and show their support. I was overwhelmed as I had not seen so many Nepalis since so long. Even though I didn’t know any of them personally, just being around Nepalis who were referring to me as their sister felt very safe. I wept uncontrollably in front of them and could not say much.”“I never met my six grandchildren, even as I took care of five of my employer’s children of similar ages. My brother and daughters try to remind me of the names of my grandchildren, but it is impossible for me to keep up. I will have to re-introduce myself to my own children whom I had left behind a long time ago. They are unrecognisable after all these years,” she says.Lilamaya knows life in Jhapa once she is back will not be without challenges. Her son is facing mental health issues. She breaks down as she says: “A धामी shaman is treating him and he is confined to a room. It pains me to think about my son, and I cannot wait to hold him. I have my own health problems, especially with one of my eyes. I am also mentally stressed. But I am glad they found me."  <img width="1181" height="530" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8589c7e80680e087852jpeg.jpg" alt="">Lilamaya ’s case is not isolated, and most Nepalis know about the risks. Yet this does not deter Nepali women from undertaking similar journeys. Lilamaya has an explanation: “When everyone else is going abroad to work from the village, you also think it is OK. There were people in my village who were younger and more informed than me who were leaving via India and sending money home. I was unlucky to land a monstrous employer.”The possibility of a better life is real, especially because of rising demand abroad in the care economy. The partial and blanket bans on women travelling abroad can be by-passed through the open border with India. Also, there are few domestic employment options for Nepali women. A recent World Bank Jobs Diagnostic shows that three-quarters of new jobs taken up by women between 2008 and 2018 were in non-wage, self- employment or unpaid family work like farming.In any age group, less than half of the female population participates in the labour market and it is limited by traditional gender roles, family responsibilities, and mobility and security concerns.The willingness to bypass the ban to improve their lives is also fuelled by the pressing demand for domestic workers abroad which was growing in the Gulf at 9% annually pre-pandemic. Now, with family members are home at all times, domestic workers are under added pressure to work more without adequate compensation. While many sectors face the brunt of pandemic-induced economic fallout, the care economy is expected to grow in the Gulf region and beyond. For Nepali women, whose share in overseas employment has been limited at around 10% annually, overseas options in non-care sectors has remained poor.But defying the ban means women are not recorded as migrants by the government. It also results in lack of pre-departure training, inability to hold agents accountable, and makes them ineligible for welfare programs — all part of the legalised recruitment process.After years of the ban being decried for its ineffectiveness and unintended consequences, in October the Parliamentary Committee on Industry, Commerce, Labour and Consumer Interest instructed that the ban be removed under certain conditions.Says Bimal Prasad Shrivastav, Chair of the Committee, who led a review trip to the Gulf before the pandemic to assess the situation of domestic workers: “Rather than a blanket ban, we have recommended that country- specific policies be taken to address the situation of domestic workers.” For example, the committee has recommended that the ban be lifted for the UAE, which has taken proactive steps in domestic worker reform, and with which Nepal has signed a labour MOU. A similar agreement is also being signed with Oman.“With countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, there are currently no MOUs and they need to be prioritised urgently,” says Shrivastav, “while an MOU is an essential condition, it is not sufficient and we have made a series of other recommendations after considerable deliberations.”In addition to a comprehensive bilateral labour agreement, these preconditions include a separate domestic worker law, a strong joint mechanism to resolve issues faced by domestic workers, pre-departure training — including of the local language — and post-arrival training, equality of treatment between Nepalis and locals, penalties for sponsors who abuse domestic workers, and easy access of domestic workers to communicate with consular officials and families back home.In early November, Saudi Arabia made some reforms to foreign worker regulations, including giving workers the freedom to change jobs legally to travel outside the country without their employer’s permission. However the changes, which will be effective from March 2021 and are considered a bold effort to dismantle the infamous Kafala system, do not apply to domestic workers. Similar reforms made in Qatar in August this year do,however, apply to domestic workers.But as with all lofty policies, it all boils down to implementation. Bilateral agreements and other policies are only useful if they prevent other migrant workers like Lilamaya Dhimal from abuse by inhumane employers.Om Thapa and Lekhnath Khatiwada helped in reporting this piece.

Upasana Khadka

Marty Logan

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Nepali in Saudi Arabia rescued after 12 years

<img width="528" height="668" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636bef464b0ad905ca02ef97jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Twelve years after she left Nepal, and after a dramatic rescue from the home of her abusive Saudi employer, Lilamaya Dhimal (pictured above) returned to a sunny Kathmandu airport on Wednesday morning to say: "I feel safe now, at least I know I will live."   She was saved from a cruel man of the house in a well-planned rescue in the town of Tabuk by her brother, the Nepal embassy and other Nepalis. She is ecstatic to be back and reunited with her family in Jhapa, who had given up hope that she was alive.The Nepal Consulate in Jeddah, where she had been sheltering, told her to get up at 9AM on Tuesday to catch her flight via Kuwait. But the anticipation was too much for her.“I was so excited that I could barely sleep. I was up by 3AM and was on the phone with my children,” Lilamaya said after landing.Lilamaya Dhimal (who is also known by her alias Sharmila Kisan Magar) had been out of touch with her family for over a decade since first going to Saudi Arabia in 2009. One day, by sheer chance, she connected with a man from Nepal on IMO, and pleaded for help.He shared her contact information with his sister in Jhapa, who lived near Lilamaya’s house and was kind enough to go to her home to pass on her details to her family.“It was such a shock when I received a call and heard my brother say दिदी,” Lilamaya recalls. “I learnt that my husband, who was in ill health and drank, passed away three years back. My children were young when I left, but I have six grandchildren now. I was out of touch for years, and they had given me up for dead.”Lilamaya’s employer was abusive and did not pay her. When she couldn’t bear the torture, Lilamaya used to ask him what they would do if she died in Saudi Arabia? His response — a nonchalant “Maafi mushkil” (no problem). <img width="528" height="960" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636bef484b0ad905ca02ef98jpeg.jpg" alt="">“I landed in the hands of a monster,” she says. “All five of the family’s children were below 10 years and were quite a handful. They were gullible and emulated their parents in mistreating me. My days would begin before 6 AM and end after 1 AM.”Lilamaya’s brother, Hem Raj Magar, was based in the UAE and helped coordinate her rescue via the Riyadh-based Nepal Embassy which referred her case to the Jeddah-based Consulate.“My sister can barely read and she had no idea where she was in Saudi Arabia,” says Hem Raj. “It took me a long time and several failed attempts so she could finally send her WhatsApp location.”Labour Attache Prem Upadhyaya at the Consulate in Jeddah recommended that she also send pictures of nearby landmarks. Lilamaya  managed to sneak out of the house one day and took pictures of a neighbourhood shop. That was enough to begin the rescue effort.“The location was in Tabuk, over 1,200 km from where we are based,” says Upadhyaya. “So we mobilised Nepalis in the town to confirm the location as we hit the road. We advised her to come outside the next morning once her employer had left for work. We instantly recognised her and took her away in our vehicle.”Lilamaya recalls her nervousness, “My heart was pounding as I was scared I would be caught. I managed to take two small bags of my clothes even though I had been advised not to bring anything.” <figure><img width="588" height="292" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636bef4a4b0ad905ca02ef99jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="640" height="383" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636bef4c4b0ad905ca02ef9ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Consulate staff coordinated with Saudi authorities to ensure that Lilamaya was fairly compensated. “The employer was a no-show at the Labour Office on the first day but he came in the second day,” says Upadhyaya. “After much back and forth, they have finally paid her 30,000 Riyal (Rs 953,000).” Lilamaya said she had been paid for the first few years, although she could not recall the exact details of the time period and amount. While her exit documentation was being sorted out and she got compensated, Lilamaya lived under the protection of the Nepal Consulate in Jeddah and Non-Resident Nepali Association in Tabuk, and then in the Consulate for over one month.She recalls, “One day, there were many Nepalis who had come to the Consulate to talk to me and show their support. I was overwhelmed as I had not seen so many Nepalis since so long. Even though I didn’t know any of them personally, just being around Nepalis who were referring to me as their sister felt very safe. I wept uncontrollably in front of them and could not say much.”“I never met my six grandchildren, even as I took care of five of my employer’s children of similar ages. My brother and daughters try to remind me of the names of my grandchildren, but it is impossible for me to keep up. I will have to re-introduce myself to my own children whom I had left behind a long time ago. They are unrecognisable after all these years,” she says.Lilamaya knows life in Jhapa once she is back will not be without challenges. Her son is facing mental health issues. She breaks down as she says: “A धामी shaman is treating him and he is confined to a room. It pains me to think about my son, and I cannot wait to hold him. I have my own health problems, especially with one of my eyes. I am also mentally stressed. But I am glad they found me."  <img width="1181" height="530" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636bef4e4b0ad905ca02ef9bjpeg.jpg" alt="">Lilamaya ’s case is not isolated, and most Nepalis know about the risks. Yet this does not deter Nepali women from undertaking similar journeys. Lilamaya has an explanation: “When everyone else is going abroad to work from the village, you also think it is OK. There were people in my village who were younger and more informed than me who were leaving via India and sending money home. I was unlucky to land a monstrous employer.”The possibility of a better life is real, especially because of rising demand abroad in the care economy. The partial and blanket bans on women travelling abroad can be by-passed through the open border with India. Also, there are few domestic employment options for Nepali women. A recent World Bank Jobs Diagnostic shows that three-quarters of new jobs taken up by women between 2008 and 2018 were in non-wage, self- employment or unpaid family work like farming.In any age group, less than half of the female population participates in the labour market and it is limited by traditional gender roles, family responsibilities, and mobility and security concerns.The willingness to bypass the ban to improve their lives is also fuelled by the pressing demand for domestic workers abroad which was growing in the Gulf at 9% annually pre-pandemic. Now, with family members are home at all times, domestic workers are under added pressure to work more without adequate compensation. While many sectors face the brunt of pandemic-induced economic fallout, the care economy is expected to grow in the Gulf region and beyond. For Nepali women, whose share in overseas employment has been limited at around 10% annually, overseas options in non-care sectors has remained poor.But defying the ban means women are not recorded as migrants by the government. It also results in lack of pre-departure training, inability to hold agents accountable, and makes them ineligible for welfare programs — all part of the legalised recruitment process.After years of the ban being decried for its ineffectiveness and unintended consequences, in October the Parliamentary Committee on Industry, Commerce, Labour and Consumer Interest instructed that the ban be removed under certain conditions.Says Bimal Prasad Shrivastav, Chair of the Committee, who led a review trip to the Gulf before the pandemic to assess the situation of domestic workers: “Rather than a blanket ban, we have recommended that country- specific policies be taken to address the situation of domestic workers.” For example, the committee has recommended that the ban be lifted for the UAE, which has taken proactive steps in domestic worker reform, and with which Nepal has signed a labour MOU. A similar agreement is also being signed with Oman.“With countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, there are currently no MOUs and they need to be prioritised urgently,” says Shrivastav, “while an MOU is an essential condition, it is not sufficient and we have made a series of other recommendations after considerable deliberations.”In addition to a comprehensive bilateral labour agreement, these preconditions include a separate domestic worker law, a strong joint mechanism to resolve issues faced by domestic workers, pre-departure training — including of the local language — and post-arrival training, equality of treatment between Nepalis and locals, penalties for sponsors who abuse domestic workers, and easy access of domestic workers to communicate with consular officials and families back home.In early November, Saudi Arabia made some reforms to foreign worker regulations, including giving workers the freedom to change jobs legally to travel outside the country without their employer’s permission. However the changes, which will be effective from March 2021 and are considered a bold effort to dismantle the infamous Kafala system, do not apply to domestic workers. Similar reforms made in Qatar in August this year do,however, apply to domestic workers.But as with all lofty policies, it all boils down to implementation. Bilateral agreements and other policies are only useful if they prevent other migrant workers like Lilamaya Dhimal from abuse by inhumane employers.Om Thapa and Lekhnath Khatiwada helped in reporting this piece.

Nepal won the first two matches, clinching the T20 series in the UAE, making history: this is the country’s first ever win, and series win, against a Test-playing country.&nbsp; On Tuesday night, Nepal lost the last game by 10 wickets. The West Indies easily met Nepal’s 122 runs in 19.5 overs. Despite that, Nepal had beaten the two-time T20 World Champions which is currently number 6 in T20 rankings. It is important to note that the West Indies are fielding a significantly weaker and younger team than they could. Caribbean heavy hitters Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell and Shimron Hetmyer are currently resting or playing in domestic leagues. But that does not take away from the fact that, after two narrow misses against South Africa and Bangladesh at the 2024 T20 World Cup, Nepal has now beaten a Test-Playing nation, and done so convincingly.&nbsp; Nepal won the first match of the series on 27 September by 19 runs. Batting first after winning the toss, Nepal put up 148 for 8 after losing openers Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh early.&nbsp; Rohit Paudel’s 38 and Kushal Malla’s 30 steadied the innings, and 148 was a reasonable target to defend on the tricky Sharjah pitch. The young Windies dropped a series of catches.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251001031052_5f24273f6da2f52f6414b7ecc485938a4c726431bfa7c2ba435bded3debe9f5a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20251001031052_5f24273f6da2f52f6414b7ecc485938a4c726431bfa7c2ba435bded3debe9f5a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal defeats West Indies NT 1"> </figure>  Nepal’s fielding, in contrast, was excellent as it held the West Indies to 129 for 8. Dipendra Singh Airee and Kushal Bhurtel both had run outs, and the team held on to tricky catches throughout.&nbsp; The last ball of the match, with it already won, saw Bhurtel catch Fabian Allen off of Airee’s bowling, throw the ball in the air before stepping outside the boundary, before jumping back in to complete the catch legally.&nbsp; Head coach Stuart Law, former Australian Cricketer, was pleased with the performance. “We deserved it, we played a really good game of cricket. I thought our fielding in the first 15-17 overs was outstanding,” he said, predicting, “the West Indies will be hurt, they’re a proud nation. They’ll come out red-hot on Monday, so we got to be better than tonight.”&nbsp; Bhurtel was ecstatic at having beaten the two-time T20 World Champions. He pointed to the team’s versatility as a big strength. “We have a lot of players who can both bat and bowl. Gulsan (Jha) and Kushal Malla did not bowl at all, and Lalit (Rajbhansi) did not bowl out all of his overs.” And the team still used seven bowlers.&nbsp; If the first match was a surprise, then the second match was a shock. Nepal put up 173 for 6, with Aasif Sheikh hitting 68 not out and Sundeep Jora 63, the two putting up a hundred run fourth wicket partnership.&nbsp; They then bowled out the West Indies for a humiliating 83, with Mohammad Aadil Alam taking 4 for 24 and Kushal Bhurtel 3 for 16.&nbsp; There was more excellence in the field, with the Nepali team taking seven catches, many of them very tricky ones right on the edge of the ropes. This second win sealed the series victory, also a first for Nepali cricket. The margin of victory and the team’s overall dominance were both very obvious.&nbsp; Nepalis in the UAE showed up at the Sharjah Stadium in full support for the Rhinos, wearing jerseys, flags, and dhaka topis, raucously cheering on the team’s performance.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251001031052_217ceb7078e9c253f8db6fec57911eb8e56822e3fc20d520d39e06f475fd6d65.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20251001031052_217ceb7078e9c253f8db6fec57911eb8e56822e3fc20d520d39e06f475fd6d65" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal defeats West Indies NT 1"> </figure>  Fresh on their minds must have been recent protests back home. The Cricket Association of Nepal dedicated the series to those who lost their lives. Captain Rohit Paudel also dedicated his man of the match award from the first T20 to the 74 people killed last month in Nepal.&nbsp; “Since last one month has not been that great for us, so slowly we are getting better. It is great to give a little happiness to the people of Nepal,” said Paudel.&nbsp; Leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane was notably absent from both matches, having excused himself from the squad for personal reasons.&nbsp; “It is what it is,” said coach Law. “we are a very competitive team and someone has to stand up in his place.”&nbsp; The wins also open the possibilities for further series, with countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan or Zimbabwe.&nbsp; CHASING TESTS  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251001031048_70fed823c34d91dfefc078cb5786c2ea04ad70387fbf09424a5304b926cc3e3c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20251001031048_70fed823c34d91dfefc078cb5786c2ea04ad70387fbf09424a5304b926cc3e3c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="995" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal defeats West Indies"> </figure>  In international cricket, a ‘Test-playing nation’ is a country that is authorised to play Test Matches by the central governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC). Test Matches are the longest format of the sport, lasting up to five days, and are the most prestigious.&nbsp; Currently, this exclusive group is made up of Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan.&nbsp; Nepal has a ways to go. To become a Test-playing nation, it must first become a full member of the ICC. To do this, they must consistently qualify for ODI and T20 world cups over eight years, and have at least two ICC-accredited venues for hosting matches — currently only the Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground qualifies.&nbsp; Nepal must also have significant youth development infrastructure, a good domestic setup, and a recognised governing body that is financially stable and not corrupt.&nbsp; With the current development of stadiums across Nepal and innovations such as the Nepal Premier League, and performances such as these, Nepal seems firmly on the way.&nbsp;

2-1 for Nepal against The Windies

Nepal is still reeling from the short but violent GenZ moment, and the reverberations are being felt around the world.&nbsp;
As news from the killings and rampage from Nepal on 8-9 September spread through the wire services and social media, in the Philippines, East Timor and even faraway Peru, banners on the streets last week referred to ‘learning lessons from Nepal’. In Ladakh last week, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/25/bloodiest-day-how-gen-z-protest-wave-hit-indias-ladakh-killing-four">protesters set fire to the ruling BJP party office</a> and four people were killed in police firing.&nbsp;
Nepal’s GenZ was praised by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/opinion/asia-protest-youth-nepal-bangladesh.html">international commentators</a> for rising up against chronic corruption and impunity, and for achieving the fastest regime change in history. But the youth were also blamed for the arson and vandalism even though the groups said they had no part in it — most &nbsp;foreign media also did not highlight enough the infiltration by radical groups.
“We were not expecting the protests to turn so violent and deadly. On the second day, things escalated so quickly it became difficult to keep track. We were rushing on the groud and making calls to confirm what was happening,” recalls Paavan Mathema of Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Nepal.
The GenZ protest this month was a lesson on the mechanics of social media. Hashtags like #youthagainstcorruption and #nepobaby from Indonesia inspired Nepal’s youth to take to the streets, but events here in turn triggered protests elsewhere. The international news agencies and mainstream global tv channels were not as important in this information cross-pollination.
The movement was organised online and spread quickly in no time, but it was disinformation and fake news that spread faster than facts. The over-simplification by international media was because it had to explain 30 years of political evolution in a country that they mostly ignored in the past, this sometimes tended to be misleading.&nbsp;
While the Oli government’s social media ban of 26 platforms starting 5 September poured oil on the fire that had already been lit by a disparate group of desperate youth, their outrage over decades of corruption and impunity was reaching a breaking point. There was extreme disenchantment with serial politicians recycling themselves in power.&nbsp;
“The ban on social media definitely triggered the protest, but we put a high priority on accuracy and speed during reporting in such times,” explains the Nepal correspondent for Associated Press (AP) news agency in Nepal Binaj Gurubacharya. “Our own safety also becomes a prime concern in times like these, but should not be at an expense of accuracy.”
CRISIS REPORTING
But headlines everywhere including in The New York Times, The Guardian and others that used wire service content initially highlighted the social media ban as the main reason for the protest. They were soon called out by protesters, while <a href="https://institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/article/3358" target="_blank">Al Jazeera</a> and its <a href="https://institute.aljazeera.net/en" target="_blank">Media Institute </a>were applauded for more nuanced coverage.
Another positive example of international media supplementing the stories by local journalists was <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/" target="_blank">France 24’</a>s detailed <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20250915-nepal-police-protests-violence-kathmandu" target="_blank">forensic analysis</a> of the security forces firing live ammunition at protesters at Parliament on 8 September.&nbsp;
What really went far and wide around the world were dramatic YouTube videos about the violence, and memes on social media. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-accidental-journalist" target="_blank">A British tourist</a> who filmed street protests did the work of an on-the-ground journalist and got millions of views globally for some of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slq6zWu9o9w" target="_blank">his YouTube videos</a>.&nbsp;
But some of the misinformation or fake news on social media was also picked up by the mainstream press, like the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/nepal-violence-ex-pm-khanals-wife-dies-after-house-torched-president-urges-calm-dialogue/articleshow/123791004.cms">wrongly reported death of former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal’s wife</a> in an arson attack on their home. A video of the Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel being <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/video-nepal-finance-minister-chased-through-street-kicked-attacked-9243749">chased and beaten</a> by protesters also turned out to be someone else.&nbsp;
Some international outlets, mainly in India, also fell prey to a fake video that K P Oli had fled to Dubai. Even this newspaper’s online edition had to correct it after wrongly reporting it without verification.&nbsp;
Indian tv channels which did &nbsp;extensive coverage of events in Nepal, with many Nepalis relying on them and believing their content — especially during the protests when Nepal’s main channels went off air as they were being attacked.
All this got out of hand, and protesters in the week after the violence started ridiculing and harassing Indian tv correspondents as they tried to interview talking heads outside the charred Parliament building, or on the streets.
<a href="https://www.newslaundry.com/2025/09/09/foreign-hand-gen-z-data-addiction-5-ways-indian-media-missed-the-nepal-story">Indian media</a> were also the first to accuse US involvement in sparking a ‘colour revolution’ in Nepal. They later claimed that former Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) chief and now Energy Minister Kulman Ghising and even Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah have been appointed interim prime minister in Nepal. These were rumours in Nepal, but were reported as news.&nbsp;
“Fact checking is crucial while covering such movements, and since we are telling an important story about Nepal to the world, double checking becomes important as it sets the international narrative,” says Mathema.
“We were constantly double checking numbers and information with concerned authorities and parties to make sure we were accurate, especially as misinformation was rampant,” she adds.
Apart from Indian media, international news agencies got reinforcements of reporters, photojournalists and editors from the region, and other foreign correspondents also flew in when Kathmandu airport was opened after 48 hours.
Adds Mathema: “Sometimes foreign reporters can give a fresh perspective or an angle which we could not see or cover. So their inputs are always helpful.”
In the aftermath of the violence, there were plenty of jokes and memes, clips of protesters dancing, in weird poses and performing martial arts, showcasing the light hearted side of the protests while also <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-meme-revolution">reaffirming the resilience</a> of people able to bounce back from something so traumatic.
The GenZ clean-up campaigns, neighbourhoods helping restore burnt out police stations and local people’s emotional reaction to the burnt out hulks of government buildings at the city centre also <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3325635/nepals-gen-z-protesters-lead-clean-campaign-after-violent-clashes">made news</a>.
“After the protests, people were quick to gather and clean up public spaces and paint police stations. This is a scene which may not be so common in other countries with similar violence,” adds Gurubacharya. “So it became an important story to also tell the world.”&nbsp;
In less than two days, the world saw a dramatic toppling of a democratic government. With the interim government led by former chief justice Sushila Karki, there is much hope. She has expanded her ministerial cabinet, and the election has been announced for 5 March 2026 but between then and now, a lot remains uncertain.&nbsp;
And Nepal will continue to be watched by national and international media alike until then and after. AP’s Gurubacharya sums it up: “For now, we are taking it one day at a time.”

International spotlight on Nepal

From the echo chambers of social media to neighborhood tea shops, the hot topic two weeks after the GenZ revolt toppled Nepal’s government is whether the country should now have a directly elected prime minister. Although this has been proposed before as a way to end the instability in heads of government chosen by the biggest party or coalition in Parliament, it has found supporters and critics in the aftermath of the protests. As democratic as it sounds, a directly elected executive is not that simple.&nbsp; Nepal’s 2015 Constitution does not allow it, but for a young generation impatient for change, this demand raises critical social, political and constitutional questions. Nepal has seen a multiplicity of systems in the past 45 years: from a partyless absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, a parliamentary democracy and then a federal republic. But they have repeatedly failed to bring stability, good governance or an end to corruption in Nepal. But even though lately they have ensured civil liberties, the public was losing hope for the future, especially the young who could air and amplify their outrage on social media. Unbridled corruption and ideologically mismatched fragile coalitions acting with impunity, led many to conclude that a directly elected prime minister would ensure stability and accountability. ‘We have repeatedly trusted the same political parties, but they have repeatedly broken that trust, so it is no longer possible to trust that system anymore,’ says Miraj Dhungana, popular for the TikTok videos asking young people to go out into the streets to rally against corruption, and seen by many as the ‘original’ representative of Gen Z.&nbsp; In interviews he has stated that it has become necessary for Nepal to have a directly elected executive head through constitutional amendment. Dhungana himself did not participate in the protests after his meeting with pro-monarchist businessman Durga Prasai on 7 September sparked controversy that he as a lackey. Binod Deuba Thakuri of the Nepal Student Union who also participated in the GenZ protests thinks Nepal is institutionally not ready for directly elected prime minister: “Our democracy is not mature yet, our institutions are not strong, and we are vulnerable to social media induced populism.”&nbsp; CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT Amending the Constitution would also open a pandora’s box, with other demands, and should be left to the next legislative body, he adds. In her address to the nation on Friday, Prime Minister Sushila Karki who is a former chief justice also clarified that her interim government does not have the mandate to amend the Constitution to make way for a directly elected head of government, and it should be up to the new legislature and government after the 5 March election.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250919130956_799b2d43dccca73b3bff96e435efc0752203117b2cb219d0073994c0e6f2ee25.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250919130956_799b2d43dccca73b3bff96e435efc0752203117b2cb219d0073994c0e6f2ee25" data-rendition-name="original" width="4160" height="2774" loading="lazy" alt="Constitution Day NT"> <figcaption>Constitution Day address by Prime Minister Sushila Karki on 19th September earlier this month.</figcaption> </figure>  The demand for a directly elected executive head was first raised by Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal after the 2006 ceasefire. He proposed himself as Nepal’s first executive president ahead of the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections. While the UML did not strongly oppose the idea, the Nepali Congress (NC) stuck to a parliamentary framework. The 2015 Constitution ultimately clinched it for the current parliamentary system. The Constitution stipulates that the process of selecting a prime minister is based on parliamentary strength: the President appoints the leader of the party with a majority in the House of Representatives, or, in the absence of such a majority, a member who can demonstrate majority support. If these efforts fail, provisions exist for coalition or minority governments, and ultimately for the dissolution of the House and fresh elections. The Constitution currently makes no provision for a directly elected prime minister, which means that any attempt to introduce a directly elected executive would first require the careful design of a democratic mechanism to amend the Constitution and set out the procedures for such an election.&nbsp; “There is no legal legitimacy to have the directly elected executive head of the country in the March election, except if political legitimacy surpasses legality but that would mean a new constitution,” explains senior advocate Surendra Kumar Mahato. “Many other institutional arrangements like the appointment of the judiciary, the role of the president, and other check and balance mechanisms would need to be restructured.” Mahato says: “Nepal’s Constitution itself is not at fault — it is the political actors, who have failed to uphold good governance within its framework. Changing systems does not ensure better governance.”&nbsp; Changing the Constitution also needs a broad political consensus, the institutional capacity of the state must be carefully considered to ensure such a new system can function effectively in practice and not simply in theory. Empowering an executive head through direct elections should not come at the expense of accountability or parliamentary oversight, and there should be checks and balances in place. LESSONS FROM ABROAD Sri Lanka’s 2022 Agralaya was fuelled by the anger that the directly executive head turned out to be an authoritarian who backslides on democracy. Under Sri Lanka’s 1978 Constitution, the country adopted a directly elected executive presidency with sweeping powers over the cabinet, appointments, dismissal of parliament, and control over key institutions.&nbsp; Over the years, President Mahinda Rajapaksa removed term limits via the 18th Amendment in 2010, centralised appointment powers, including judges and heads of independent commissions, and used constitutional changes such as the 20th Amendment (2020) to reverse safeguards that limited presidential authority, thereby subordinating the legislature, weakening oversight, and enabling authoritarian control.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250914060932_a96e1046d0b148982b33f2dcbe56f349dc0c20a087e358360eb2dddcfe0b5072.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250914060932_a96e1046d0b148982b33f2dcbe56f349dc0c20a087e358360eb2dddcfe0b5072" data-rendition-name="original" width="4640" height="2610" loading="lazy" alt="GenZ and Aragalaya"> <figcaption>Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka on 13 April 2022 in front of the Presidential Secretariat. Photo: WIKIPEDIA</figcaption> </figure>  Nepal’s multiparty framework upholds an institutional balance where both the governing party and the opposition have defined roles. This parliamentary setup prevents power from being overly concentrated in one individual and ensures accountability through parliament and competing parties. Beyond the neighbourhood, the United States has a directly elected executive system. Donald Trump exemplifies how direct electoral mandate can fracture institutional check mechanisms. He has leveraged his power to attack judges, frame political opponents, turn legal defeats into rallying points for his supporters, often using pliant media platforms to reinforce the idea that institutional checks impeded the popular will. In Nepal, there is a risk that a directly elected prime minister could bring up a populist media savvy messiah who could use public grievances to get to power and consolidate it. Social media can be mobilised and easily saturated with posts to fuel a political narrative of choice.&nbsp; In the past, former prime minister K P Oli’s ‘digital army’ has been lobbied on his behalf on social media. Even without an ‘IT sena’, it is not unusual for governments to collaborate with social media platforms as seen in the US and India.&nbsp; In Nepal, a directly elected prime minister would raise the stakes, turning the battle for votes into a battle for attention online, where a leader who wins the algorithm also wins the elections, just as Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah demonstrated in 2022 with support from groups like MRR and RONB. The Balen Phenomenon started in social media trickled to the ballot box.&nbsp; The digital space mas ensure that it is not trendy to dislike Balen. Comments that are critical of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s treatment of street vendors or of the mayor himself are met with backlash from supporters. Or, if the comments did not get any likes, the algorithms filtered them out as ‘not relevant’.&nbsp; The conversation of Shah often centred on his emotive responses and sentiments, generating strong engagement online. Meanwhile, policy debates received comparatively less attention.&nbsp; “Choosing a leader directly through an election means that we are vulnerable to populism and undermining of the democratic process, accountable institutions,” says Thaukri. Political activist Pradip Gyawali admits that the GenZ revolt was an example of how social media is a powerful tool to organise and disseminate information. But there are risks posed by disinformation and fake news online.&nbsp; “More media and political literacy among the people before the election in March is crucial to control the damage social media could do to influence voter behaviour,” he says.&nbsp; Beyond social media, online news increasingly relies on sensational, click-driven headlines to attract readers in a competitive digital market. A recent survey showed that 82.6% of GenZ (16- 24) rely on Facebook for news and 51.4% on YouTube.&nbsp; Nepali people with higher education seemed to engage with news more (99.1%) than illiterate individuals at 52.1%. Byte-sized headline-only journalism is leaving readers to their own devices, and vulnerable to media infiltration by IT cells.&nbsp; With social media actively shaping the course of elections, and news consumption, debates about changing the Constitution or the system of governance yet again may not ensure the demands for corruption free governance is met. Instead, strengthening media and political literacy among voters is key to prepare for the elections in March. Ayusha Chalise is a communication and development scholar specialising in how politics is experienced in the digital space.

Nepal's democracy keeps doubting itself

The word for ‘development’ in Nepali is bikas. The world for destruction is binas. &nbsp; The two words not only rhyme, but replacing just one consonant gives it an opposite meaning. It also demonstrates how easily what we think is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/development-destruction-yt3t1yhu">‘Development’ can be destructive</a>.&nbsp; University libraries in Nepal and around the world are stacked with hundreds of books dissecting ‘development’. They can be divided broadly into at least two types: some authors define development as a moral imperative to improve living standards of people in the underserved parts of the world, mostly in the Global South.&nbsp; Others critique development either as being an ‘industry’, or as a continuation of the western colonial project that imposes dependency and corruption, perpetuates the donor-recipient hierarchy, and ends up disempowering intended beneficiaries. Somewhere in between are books by experts who have tried to find a middle path with concepts like ‘sustainable human development’, ‘people’s participation’ or ‘public-private partnership’. But even the staunchest proponents of traditional development models will admit that all is not well, somewhere along the line we lost our way. Peter Sutoris and Uma Pradhan have dared to take the bull by the horns to find a new path to ‘reimagine’ development, and explore new templates to confront a world wracked by interconnected crises of conflict, inequality, environmental decay and climate breakdown. Their book Reimagining Development: Bold Directions Towards a Thriving World lays out a roadmap for countries like Nepal as they try to fix what went wrong. Billions of dollars were poured into Nepal’s ‘development’ over the past seven decades, but the country is littered with the carcasses of failures like the rusted abandoned tractors from the Rapti Valley Development Project 65 years ago. To be sure, there have been catalytic success stories along the way. It is not a coincidence that whatever has worked well in Nepal since 1990 has the word ‘community’ in it — things fall into place when local groups are given ownership to decide what they need, and allowed to decide what they need to do.&nbsp; Some examples in the book include <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/reviving-nepals-community-forestry-success-story">Nepal’s community forestry project</a>, which Sutoris and Pradhan cite as an example of the kind of possibilities needed to reimagine development for a ‘thriving world’. Local communities were handed control to manage their natural resources, revive traditional conservation practices, and assert command over their own destiny. Nepal’s community forestry program together with the Local Self Governance Act that decentralised power to elected local bodies in the 1990s was the best example of how development can be a political act to ensure an equitable future, while conserving nature. Sutoris and Pradhan write: ‘Substantial evidence from Nepal indicates that community forestry enhances forest protection and regeneration … Village Development Committees that had adopted community forestry recorded a 77% increase in forested area, compared to a 13% increase in the villages without community forest.’&nbsp; Peter Sutoris was born in the former Czechoslovakia that saw the 1968 Prague Spring uprising and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Uma Pradhan is from Nepal, which has witnessed successive People’s Movements in 1980, 1990, 2006 and earlier this month in 2025. &nbsp; ‘It was perhaps because of these experiences of witnessing the remaking of the world in the wake of the end of the Cold War that we come to this book with a strong belief that even the most rigid collective trajectories can and do change,’ the authors write in their introduction. Their book has three parts. The first one dissects the Development Industry and the model of perpetual ‘growth’. (Interestingly, the word ‘growth’ is used in medicine to signify malignancy.) The authors propose re-centering the stories of beneficiaries and their lived experiences which have been pushed to the margins in ‘project’ design of mainstream Development with a capital ‘D’. &nbsp; The book defines development with a lowercase ‘d’ as a more democratic bottom-up approach. Capital ‘D’ Development on the other hand involves ‘developers’ wanting to ‘develop’ societies, replicating the wasteful, unsustainable growth path of the industrialised countries. &nbsp; The book’s second section examines the tension between sweeping international concepts of development, and how it is not quite relevant to the reality of rural areas of countries like Nepal. The prevailing notion that development ‘aid’ flows mostly from cash rich countries to cash poor ones ignores the fact that it mostly takes from the poor in rich countries to give to the rich in poor countries. After all, the Global South also includes the underserved parts of the Global North.&nbsp; RETHINKING PROGRESS The Development Industry does ‘develop’ certain segments of the economy, just not so much the sections it is supposed to uplift. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/usnoaid">cancellation of USAID</a> this year vacated hundreds of rented offices and houses in Kathmandu, consultants and contractors became jobless, and even Nepal’s domestic airlines lost business.&nbsp; The third part of this book imagines what ‘A Thriving World’ can look like if we listened more to indigenous communities and their knowledge of the stewardship of nature, adopted best practices about inclusive and decentralised decision-making, and explores examples of ‘degrowth’ and ‘postgrowth’ to address unsustainable consumerist, extractivist economics, and the climate crisis. Sutoris and Pradhan admit that these concepts are not new. Practitioners have questioned the top-down model for decades, but their book Reimagining Development takes a fresh, non-conventional approach to bridging the best of the ‘old’ development discourse with a ‘new’ imagining that transcends entrenched positions. The authors cite Buddhist mindfulness techniques, the concept of ‘radical humility’ and the idea of deep time to zoom out for a fresh perspective on a novel development paradigm to ‘think about humanity’s position in the world’. ‘Ultimately, this book is likely to disappoint both the proponents and critics of development,’ the authors admit. ‘The proponents might view the arguments we put forward as too esoteric and not attuned to what can realistically be achieved. The critics might be dismayed by our &nbsp;unwillingness to dispose of the concept of development altogether and by our attempts to give credit to the Development establishment where credit is due. Our aim, however, is not to please either camp.’ The authors do not want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. However, the obsolete way of forcing soft states to adopt the path of linear modernisation and infinite growth so they can ‘graduate’ to a higher per capita income bracket must be rethought. Alternative models are available to confront the momentous crises facing people and the planet.&nbsp; Nepal’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-historic-youth-dissensus">GenZ protesters this month rose up</a> against corruption and bad governance. But underlying it was a failure of the development path that the country has chosen, which contributed to wanton destruction of ecosystems, the unequal allocation of &nbsp;benefits, and corruption that ensured both over- and under-development.&nbsp; Nepal’s young idealists may not have been able to articulate it in the language of academic discourse, but on social media platforms they have discussed a post-development era to reexamine and reimagine development, accountability, embedded ethnocentric hegemony, and an in-built structural inequality in the system.&nbsp; These lines from Sutoris and Pradhan’s book could almost be word-for-word from the GenZ manifesto: ‘Development encompasses not only financial prosperity but social justice, environmental sustainability, and the more plural development pathways that respect the world’s diverse cultural, historical, political, and social contexts.’&nbsp; Indeed, instant global connectivity through social media platforms has meant that socio-political movements elsewhere in the world impacted on young Nepalis, just as the events in Nepal this month are now influencing youth globally.&nbsp; These lines from Reimagining Development were written before the September Uprising in Nepal, but were a warning of things to come: ‘The current moment feels different. Perhaps due to the global nature of many of the contemporary movements facilitated by social networks, perhaps due to the movements’ sheer scale, or perhaps as a result of the multitude of challenges faced by the world, the feeling in the air seems to be that accumulated critiques of Development are more pressing than ever. If development is to remain a historical moment, it must reinvent itself and finally listen to the voices from below.’ &nbsp; Kunda Dixit is the author of Dateline Earth: Journalism As If the Planet Mattered, and publisher of Nepali Times.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025092704094_b795907f8fa9a5ec67508e683e7a65737c6c237ca5482425bcbe5ee6254bb3f0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025092704094_b795907f8fa9a5ec67508e683e7a65737c6c237ca5482425bcbe5ee6254bb3f0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Development book details"> </figure>

migrant-rescue

Nepali in Saudi Arabia rescued after 12 years

Nepali in Saudi Arabia rescued after 12 years

2-1 for Nepal against The Windies

International spotlight on Nepal

Nepal's democracy keeps doubting itself

Deconstructing development in an age of crises