After Nepal’s bitter conflict ended in 2006, Khadka hoped to make a difference in parliament. A new documentary charts the disappointment and the passion of one of the most outspoken advocates for the country’s forgotten women
“Where is your brother?” the police shouted as they began to lay into Devi Khadka. “We know you’re going to meet him. Tell us where he is!” One of the officers kicked her hard in the stomach and she crumpled to the ground. “For a few seconds, I blacked out,” says Khadka. “I thought it was the end for me.”
It was 1997, a year into Nepal’s brutal decade-long conflict between Maoist insurgents and government security forces, and the police were after Khadka’s brother, Rit Bahadur, a local Maoist leader. Khadka had gone to the market in her home district of Dolakha in the east of Nepal, on an ordinary shopping trip. Now she lay in the dust, blood seeping from her nose – a 17-year-old girl surrounded by a squad of male officers.
Written by Pete Pattisson in Kathmandu
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/05/devi-khadka-rebel-fighter-maoist-mp-rape-survivor-sexual-violence-campaigner-nepal under the title “Rebel fighter, Maoist MP, rape survivor: the many lives of Devi Khadka”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
