<img width="750" height="509" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151124/636a67429c7e80680e0599cbjpeg.jpg" alt=""/>I used to live with my father and stepmother, and never knew who my real mother was. Since my father was poor, I did not get to go to school. So I followed a relative to Kathmandu from Nuwakot, and started washing dishes at a restaurant in the city. After about a year, my aunt came to see me, and told me she would educate me back in the village. Happy, I followed her.Since I have motion sickness, my aunt gave me some medicines on the bus and I fell asleep. In the middle of a jungle, in a remote location with only a couple of small tea shops, I was woken up to eat. The next time I woke up, I found out I was in Delhi. I was 14 years old. My aunt had sold me for Rs10,000.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/epicentre-trafficking-migration,3256" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Epicentre of trafficking</a>, Om Astha Rai<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/girl-trafficking-in-nepal,1829" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Teach to fight trafficking</a>, Stéphane HuëtEarly the next morning, my aunt left me with a woman names Hema, and said she would come back in a month. When I tried to follow her, a Nepali woman called Laxmi Tamang beat me up. I was kept under lock and key, but one day when I got a severe headache they took me to a hospital where they put me on medication for two days and jabbed me with injections.That made me feel very hungry all the time, and I started eating a lot. For a month, they gave me whatever I wanted to eat. Later, I learnt that those medicines and injections were meant to spur my growth and make me appear more curvaceous and feminine.Hema then sent me to Brothel Number 511 at Kashmiri Building in New Delhi with Laxmi Tamang. There, a manager called Simran told me to go with a man. When I balked, Laxmi again beat me up. Eventually, they sent three customers to be with me on the very first day.After that I had to take up to seven men every night. Later, it sometimes went up to 25 clients a day. Sometimes I did not get to sleep all night. And if someone lingered too long, I was the one yelled at.After about two years, everyone from Kashmiri Building was transferred to Brothel 64 so that the girls would appear to be ‘new’ to a different set of customers. Thus, they took us from one brothel to  another for seven years.When I was in Brothel 64, I fell seriously ill. I had stomach ache and fever for days. But they gave me no medical attention, and did not take me to hospital. Every month when I menstruated, I bled a lot and it was very painful. But I did not get to rest. Often, I wished I was dead, or that someone would come and kill me.Once, a truck driver from Gorkha called Arjun came to me. Then he started coming every month. When I was sick, he would secretly bring me medicines. Since I was an old employee by then, I was allowed to use a mobile. I used to talk to him secretly. I begged him to take me away from there.Arjun asked me to elope with him, but it was not so easy with CCTV cameras everywhere. Sometimes us old employees were allowed to go out. One day, when I was sick, I called Arjun and he took me away. He cooked for me and got me medical treatment as well.One day, a friend named Puja came to see me and said she was going home to Surkhet. Last year, I joined her and came to Surkhet to celebrate Tij. Arjun had told me that after I returned from Surkhet, he would marry me and we would go to Nepal. On the way back from Surkhet, he came to receive me in Nepalganj.When the <a href="https://maitinepal.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maiti Nepal</a> people at Nepalgunj border asked me about myself, I could not lie. The police even brought Arjun over for questioning. They kept me at Maiti Nepal, but they let him go when they learnt the truth. I did not know where he went.When I was in India, I never thought I would come back home alive. But seven years later, I celebrated Dasain at home. I have begun taking informal classes called School for Life. But my mind does not grasp what I am reading. I keep getting stomach aches, my blood pressure is high. Images of the brothel and the terrifying experiences there flash in my mind, making me cry.I think of Arjun a lot. Maybe he would not have married me, but had he not rescued me I would still be in Brothel 64 in Delhi.  With help from Maiti Nepal I have now filed a case against the uncle and aunt who sold me. The police have arrested them. But now I am scared they will be set free. I hope they do not come out of jail to torment me again.  As told to Laxmi Basnet

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Trafficked Nepali woman’s testimony

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4e309c7e80680e04fca0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2274" height="1536"/>Human trafficking makes for dramatic stories of suffering, struggle and survival, which is why it is frequently the theme on stage and screen performances. But few, perhaps, with the grace and poignancy of The Flight, presented by Solis Performing Arts and One World Theatre at the Russian Cultural Centre 4-7 July.This immersive musical dance-drama directed by Alizé  Biannic portrays not just the victimisation of young women and their emotional journeys, but tells their story through contemporary European-style dance steps.The sheer physicality of the play makes the strongest impression, whether it is the women with the trembling knees, the exhibition of half-dressed, cowering women in front of leering men who, measuring each woman with their eyes and hands, menacingly circle them and haul them over their shoulders like sacks of potatoes.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/all-the-world-is-a-stage-in-kathmandu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">All the world is a stage</a>, Sewa BhattaraiWith minimal dialogue, every emotion -- terror, anger, guilt, hope -- is communicated  through body movements, which is fitting because the subject matter revolves around physical relationships. Every action sequence has been framed carefully for visual appeal even when the emotions depicted are negative.“I wanted every scene to look like a painting, because visual impact is very important in such a performance,” explained director Biannic, who trained the actors, most of whom Nepali non-dancers, in ballet-inspired moves so that they look almost as graceful as her.The play does not just take us through the physical journeys of the characters, but also their emotional, spiritual and psychological ones. It starts with a young man whose family is involved in the ‘flesh trade’, and he wonders if he should join in. His journey begins with confusion, then acceptance, then guilt and finally abandonment of this trafficking activity.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/private-is-political/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Private is political</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4e349c7e80680e04fca1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="843"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“I want to depict the phenomenon from many aspects, including the story of how young men are unwittingly trapped in this vicious circle. Violence breeds violence, and you cannot expect love out of someone who has never seen it. This creates a chain of negativity where young men reproduce the behaviour they have seen,” says Biannic who met with several trafficking victims before writing and directing this play.She wants to draw attention to continued trafficking of Nepali women to brothels in Nepal and abroad. The journey of the women is artfully invoked through symbols and visual metaphors. An eagle, a bird associated with power and spirituality, brings hope to the women. The women bathe, suggesting a spiritual cleansing even when their bodies have been defiled. The women look for an escape from their hell, their bodies writhing and contorting with agony. When they together overcome their pain, the choreography  turns fluid and lithe.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/why-is-female-sexuality-still-a-taboo-in-Nepal,2908" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Taboo no more</a>, Ayesha ShakyaBiannic has blended classical Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky to create an intense background score that plunges and soars with the storyline. This and the ballet lends the production a strong European flavour, but the story and performance packs an emotional punch that is distinctly Nepali.The FlightDirected by Alizé BiannicRussian Cultural Center4-7 July, 1:30 PM &amp; 6:00 PM<h2>Biannic brings new edge to the Nepali stage</h2>With her flitting butterfly moves and gravity-defying leaps, Alizé Biannic is mesmerising on stage. The ballet-trained artist’s approach to dance may be European, but her animated conversation and emotionally charged approach to art certainly strikes a chord here in Nepal. The French national has been living here for the past six years, creating and acting in plays that have added a cosmopolitan flavour to Nepali theatre.Biannic started learning dance when she was 13 in Germany and Spain before working at The Royal Ballet in London. She developed her own style which merged acting and dancing because she thinks the combination works better. In 2013, she came to Nepal to take a year off, and has stayed here ever since.She met a child while working in a Kathmandu orphanage who is acting in her current production, The Flight. “I realised that I wanted to work with people who are clear and open minded because it made me realise that my life was missing something,” confesses Biannic. “I want my life to have meaning, which I found in Nepal.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4e379c7e80680e04fca2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="960">Biannic takes the same approach to her work, where she likes to imbue every frame with meaning. Her actors do not just stand in the background, their body positions and movements are minutely choreographed, conveying specific emotions relevant to the scenes. Each person or object has a well-defined role to play in every scene, and every frame looks like a painting.Biannic recently opened Solis Performing Arts, a school which teaches dance, acting and music. And when she is not teaching, she is acting or directing, and has since produced six plays and acted in others, including Arjuna’s Dilemma.“I want to make the best of available resources to create quality drama right here in Nepal,” says Biannic, while adjusting the props, lighting, music, and costumes during a dress rehearsal on Wednesday. “Proper attention to technical details really raises the quality of production, and that should not be neglected.”

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Dance-drama takes trafficking head-on

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171132/636933659c7e80680e03df97jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="787"/><figcaption>STAGE FRIGHT: On the popular tv show Nepal Idol, guest Sandip Chhetri, the comedian, hugs host Reema Bishwokarma as she cries out "Me Too!" Chhetri says "Me Three" and the other host Asif Shah jokes "Me Five!"</figcaption></figure>Viewers of the popular reality tv show Nepal Idol got a rude shock last week when guest Sandip Chhetri hugged host Reema Bishwokarma, apparently against her will. She cringed, backed off, then complained playfully, “Me too!”Chhetri retorted, “Me three!” Host Asif Shah joined in on the merriment with “Me four, me five!” The audience roared.This was the latest example of just how little understood (or misunderstood) the #MeToo movement in Nepal is, how harassment of women is accepted as normal, and victims do not have platforms for protest.A year after American actress Alyssa Milano went on Twitter to ask victims of Harvey Weinstein to use the hashtag, the aftershocks finally arrived in Nepal, but only after India was rocked by accusations against Bollywood musicians, journalists, actors, and former editor and now minister M J Akbar who had to step down.In Nepal, while the movement generated debate on social media and some women including journalists Subina Shrestha and Meena Kaini and theatre artist Akanchha Karki have spoken up, only one person has been named. Former journalists Rashmila Prajapati and Ujjwala Maharjan accused Province 3 minister and former Kathmandu mayor, Keshav Sthapit, of harassing them.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.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4364#.W9q-ptUzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patriarchy, female freedom</a>, Shrisha Karki <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5352#.W9q-tNUzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Putting the media on trial</a>, Manjushree ThapaAside from film and media, there are also the dance bars, cabin restaurants, dohori (duet-song) venues and massage parlours in which up to 50,000 young women are employed as entertainers. Most have been abused, says former dohori singer Sirjana Pun and founder of the Women Forum for Women.“Customers do not treat women as professionals, but as animals they can abuse at will,” says Pun. “We have nowhere to go for redress, because the police refuse to register our complaints. Things are changing slowly, but the complaints are still more about labour contract violations than sexual abuse, because those go nowhere.”Surprisingly, even Pun has not heard of the #MeToo movement, and neither have most trafficked women who have survived unspeakable violations. Sapna Poudel at <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/starting-the-second-chapter,3114" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shakti Samuha</a>, which was founded by trafficked women, says: “Women here have experienced dreadful sexual abuse, but many do not even open up to their counselors, let alone go public with accusations.”As the #MeToo movement gains more traction in Nepal, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/nepali-organisation-shakti-samuha-french-republic-human-rights-award,2072" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shakti Samuha</a> is planning to orient survivors, so they can decide whether they want to go public. Few women trafficked to brothels in Nepal, India or overseas and suffer sexual abuse come out, and others in occupations not covered by labour laws like household help have nowhere to complain about sexual abuse.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/epicentre-trafficking-migration,3256" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Epicenter of trafficking</a>, Om Astha Rai<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18564#.W9rAVdUzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The missing half</a>, Kapildev KhanalThe Kamlari system of bonded labour was prevalent in western Nepal till it was outlawed in 2006. Former Kamlari Bishnu Chaudhari, 24, has horror stories about slavery and abuse of generations of women from her community. It was common for employers to rape young Kamlaris, father children and abandon them. Chaudhari’s aunt committed suicide at 21 after word spread that she was pregnant.“We face our abusers every day in the village, but we do not want to rake up the past. Abused women have settled into their new lives, they do not want the stigma from reopening old cases,” says Chaudhari, who is studying to be a lawyer but has not heard of #MeToo. Nor have most of the 13,000 former Kamlari who want to focus on difficult battles for recognition, identity and ancestral property for children born of abuse. Most of the 20,000 Badi women whose traditional occupation used to be the sex trade have not heard of #MeToo either.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12487#.W9rChdUzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kamlaris in Dang</a>, Suman Pradhan<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13163#.W9rCjdUzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">At home, at work</a>, Jemima SherpaEven though 63% of Nepalis now have access to the Internet, the #MeToo movement here is limited to a small circle of educated people. There are headlines about murder, rape, assault, coercion, manipulation and harrassment, and detractors are using the distinction to undermine the movement.Outside Nepal, many #MeToo accusers are now facing a troll backlash, and in Nepal many women in media, entertainment, and corporates have remained silent. Former mayor Keshav Sthapit mocked the movement by calling the accusations “a rape of men’s rights”.Nepal’s #MeToo movement has lost some of its momentum as other campaigns against abuse like #JusticeforNirmala and #RageAgainstRape remain more effective on social media. The possibility of #MeToo movement helping obtain justice for victims in Nepal remains dim.But Namrata Sharma, Chair of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, has not lost hope. “Twenty years ago, when women activists demanded equal property rights for daughters, people laughed. But today we have that law,” she says. “Likewise, most women may not have heard of #MeToo today, some may poke fun at it, or it may be limited to a small circle, but it is a start. With time, it will help women come out, and end sexual assault.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/daughter-slaughter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daughter Slaughter</a>, Monika Deupala<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/four-fold-increase-in-reported-rape-in-10-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Four-fold increase in reported rape in 10 years</a>, Sewa BhattaraiUpdate on 2 Nov: Province 3 Chief Minister Dormani Poudel has fired Provincial Minister Keshav Sthapit (minister for Physical Infrastructure and Development) after an altercation at a cabinet meeting.<h2>Belaboured laws</h2>As the #MeToo movement gains momentum, questions have also been raised about why victims are taking to social media instead of going through proper legal channels. However, are the labour laws of Nepal adequate to curb workplace harassment?Many legal professionals do not think so. Nepal’s Sexual Harassment Prevention Act came into effect in 2015, which defines workplace as “entities owned by government, corporate bodies or institutions, and firms licensed to carry out business.” This definition leaves out vast areas where women work in and are abused, like household labour and informal sector.The law does define many acts of harassment, but gives the victims only ninety days to complain about them. “Three months is not enough, victims should be able to complain about harassment any time they want to,” says senior advocate and women’s rights activist Meera Dhungana.Dhungana also finds the punishment for the crimes too mild. While offenders may be jailed for six months or pay a fine of Rs. 50,000, their supervisor can also solve the problem by transferring them.  “If the offender is transferred, he or she may continue offending at another location. It is not a deterrent at all,” says Dhungana. “Higher fines and jail terms can make offenders think twice before they commit such crimes.”Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Online-violence-against-women,2915" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Online violence against women</a>, Sahina Shrestha<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/how-does-the-nepali-media-cover-rape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How does the Nepali media cover rape?</a>, Bhrikuti Rai

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Trafficked Nepali woman’s testimony

Dance-drama takes trafficking head-on

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