Are you into horror movies? Don’t we just love them because they scare us and give us goosebumps? Yep, you definitely know what we are talking about. But lately Nepal has ‘developed’ so much that we don’t need to watch a horror film to get scared; we just have to go through the news. Right from the front page to the last, newspapers these days are filled with the news of violence, rape and murder of women all around the nation. And you know what’s even more shocking, most of such cases never make it to the headlines because they are never reported. Because we are a ‘cultured’ nation and we don’t talk about our personal matters in front of everyone. That’s what we are taught and expected to do. And you know what happens when you don’t follow these instructions, that too if you are a girl? Let’s find out.
Just an ordinary day it was on Wednesday, February 24th. A 22-year-old girl was in her house in Madhyapur Thimi, Bhaktapur at around 12:35 noon when her younger brother suddenly entered her room. Never even in her worst nightmare had she thought that the brother whom she loved, took care of, played with and grew up with would someday rape her. But the sad part doesn’t even end here. When she decided not to keep it to herself and expose her brother; instead of getting any support, her family abandoned her and threw her out of the house. That’s not it, she even got fired from the fun park in Ratna Park where she had been working since three years after her boss came to know about the incident. And for the same reason, her boyfriend left her as well.
She was pressurized by her family and relatives to withdraw the case but when she denied to do so, she was not only ill-treated but her brother’s wife who had gone to her parents’ on the day of the incident, even threatened her and ‘advised’ to stay careful or anything might happen to her.
On March 11th, the District Court of Bhaktapur sentenced the culprit to 16 years in imprisonment along with a compensation of Rs. 300,000 to be paid to the victim who is currently staying in a girls hostel in Kathmandu.
Something just doesn’t seem right here at all. Is it fair for the girl to be abandoned by everyone without whom her life was incomplete once? What did she do wrong to be treated this way? We often blame the society for this kind of negative mentality and forget that we are the society. It’s us who can bring the change we need. But wait, why are we even talking about this ‘unnecessary’ topic when we have way more important things to look after? Let’s just cut this crap here and see if a YouTuber has insulted our flag or if somebody said that Buddha was not born in Nepal. Let’s make sure that every single website shows that Mt. Everest lies in Nepal, not china. After all, these are our real pride; not our daughters or sisters. Their existence doesn’t even matter, does it?
We, Nepalese, are experts at ‘getting offended’. It’s time we start getting offended about the things that actually matter and do something about them.
