Rites of Passage

UMA BISTA REMEMBERS that when she got her first period, she was sent away by her parents to a neighbour’s house for 12 days. She was confined to a dark room, and not allowed to go into the sun or speak to any men. This experience led her to reflect deeply on chhaupadi—a Hindu custom that is now illegal but still practised in certain areas of Nepal, which demands that women be temporarily exiled from their homes when they are on their period because they are considered impure during this time. They have to live in seclusion for between five and seven days a month, in a chhaugoth—a windowless hut or shed outside their houses, and face restrictions on what they can eat and touch.

“It is believed that the gods are angered if women break the rules of chhaupadi,”