Please read the news-item at the end of this psot first.
-----------------------------------------------------

              The issue here, IMHO, is far more serious, and it goes
like           this,
          raising many disturbing questions:

          OK, the scenario, first:

          1. Mr. Pandey makes her sister-in-law pregnant.
          2. And that in Nepal is in and of itself utterly SCANDALOUS
enough.
          3. For reasons not made clear by the story, the sister-in-law
          opts for an abortion.
          4. Mr. Pandey reports the abortion to the police.
          5. The sister-in-law gets arrested.

          [[6. Mr. Pandey, a male, probably gets a 'takma' (medal) for
his bravery!!]]

          Questions:

          1) If abortion is a crime in Nepal, then why the hell should
          Mr. Pandey, the alleged father of the child, presumably get
away for free,
          while the woman alone is there to be arrested and possibly
thrown in jail?
          What kind of stupid system we have?

          [After all, as Gopal Guragain, a journalist, has written
someplace Nepali
          jails are FULL of hundreds of lower-class/lower-caste women
serving out
          their abortion sentences
          for many, may years while their menfolks are just almost
always never
          caught, let alone punished!!]

          2) Abortion brings up its own set of issues and concerns. At
the very
          least, ths sister-in-law needs some kind of emotional support
to deal with
          the double whammy: a) being ditched by her lover; and b) the
abortion. By
          arresting her and throwing her in jail only unfairly
complicates her
          problems with no justice.

          oohi
          ashu

          ---------------------------------------
THE NEWS -ITEM:

          Woman arrested on abortion charge

                           By a Post Reporter

                           NUWAKOT, Oct 23 - Nuwakot District Police
Office Thursday
          arrested a woman on abortion charge.

                           Bishnu Kumari Pandey, resident of Madanpur
VDC ward No 1,
          had conceived after she had illicit relationship with Labande
                           Prasad Pandey, her brother-in-law (older
brother of her own
          husband).

                           She was arrested after Labande Prasad
reported to the
          police that she had terminated her pregnancy at mid-night 10
days ago.

                           She was arrested on the basis of the report
and in the
          course of investigation it was found that she had conceived
after building
                           illicit relations with brother-in-law.

                           DSP Thapa said the age of the foetus is not
clear from the
          medical report.

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This too is from Nepalmedia list, started by Kiran Subba of Stockholm.

To be a member of that list,
please visit: http://www.jmk.su.se/global99/neme/home.htm

-----------------------------------------------
Date:
                          Oct 27 1999 22:49:58 EDT
           From:
                          AikoAnne Joshi <ai...@juno.com>
           Subject:
                          Re: ????

           First, I'd like to say I've enjoyed Ashutosh Tiwari's
reflections and
           comments in The Nepal Digest!  So it was nice to see that he
is also
           member of nepalmedia!

           Second, I'd like to offer some comment about the
Pandey-sister-in-law
           incident!  When I first learned that abortion was considered
a crime in
           Nepal, I was very surprised.  Then I began reading some
things about the
           situation of some of the women imprisoned for having
abortions, and felt
           very bad for them.  Whatever way a person feels about
abortion, I think
           some of us would agree that throwing a woman in jail for it
is absolutely
           ludicrous!

       Which brings me to the point re Mr. Tiwari's question about
           why Mr. Pandey should walk around scot free and untouched,
while the
           woman he seduced(a family member yet!)is languishing in
prison!
           Basically, it's the societal attitude that women are to blame
for their
           condition that causes laws to be made so that THEY are the
criminals.
           It's not only in Nepal, but it's just about in every country
-- even the
           U.S. for those who might have a rosy picture about it -- that
women are
           treated more harshly than men in certain situations.

For example, when a
           woman is raped and she reports it to the police, she is made
to feel that
           she had somehow contributed to her degradation. Then, when
and IF the
           rapist is caught, he rarely stays in prison for more than a
year.
           Sometimes, if murder is involved, he might spend a few years,
and then
           often is released on parole -- that's in some countries; in
other
           countries, the rapist gets away with his deed completely and
sometimes
           even marries the victim!  Ditto for an abused woman.  Years
of abuse and
           torture have driven many women to kill their abusive
husbands.

As a
           result, many of the women in prisons the world over today are
left to rot
           there; yet, if a man kills his wife or girlfriend, he either
gets away
           with it or, again, spends only a very short time in prison.
For any
           sceptics reading this, do the research!  The facts are out
there!!  What
           about so-called "honour" killings?  Same idea.  The woman is
killed for
           supposedly "sullying" her family's honour; yet, a man is
allowed to go
           and sleep with whomever, and even encouraged to do so if he
is a young
           man newly grown up, and too many men have girlfriends even
though they
           might be married.  But there is no condemnation for their
actions.
           Daughters are abandoned in China; daughters are sold to sex
traffickers
           in Nepal, India, Thailand, and many African countries.  Can
we wonder
           then the treatment of Nepali women who have abortions?  When
societies
           everywhere view women as less than human beings, or less than
men, useful
           only to be jerked about, beaten, overworked baby machines,
the laws will
           inevitably reflect that attitude.

      I applaud and agree w/ Mr. Tiwari's
           indignation at the injustsice of not only the Pandey
sister-in-law's
           situation, but every Nepali woman who has been unfairly
treated for the
           same thing!  Luckily, I know that there are activists in
Nepal trying to
           do something about this law.

           Aiko
           _____

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Due to his personal animosity, Tiwari keeps on calling me by other
names.  Aside from that, I sincerely hope that Tiwari is REALLY
concerned about this injustice that has happened. [I have doubts as
Tiwari has before categorized divorced women with criminals and
provided no explanation as to why].  On this post though, I mostly
agree with Tiwari with some comments of my own...

I agree with the fact that the justice system has some responsibility
is not letting Pandey get away.  What is even more serious to me is the
possibility that the woman might actually have been RAPED by Pandey.  I
don't know the details of the matter.  But it does occur to me that
rape cannot be ruled out.  If indeed she was raped, then I'm sure
there's a way to charge Pandey.

In the event that they had consensual sex, then the issue becomes
different altogether, with implications reaching into the legal
foundations of whether a woman should be allowed "choice", an issue
that even the US hasn't come entirely to terms with.  But in any event,
the jailing of the woman is quite ludicrous.

RK

In article <7vavov$rt...@nnrp1.deja.com>,

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