16-year-old girl allegedly raped in traditional menstruation hut in Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nepal – A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped in a chhaugoth (menstruation shed) in Ward 2 of Panchadewal Binayak Municipality, Achham.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Santosh Pathak, the victim was raped by a 17-year-old boy around midnight on Monday.

On Tuesday, police arrested the suspect, a distant relative of the victim, for further investigation.

On Tuesday afternoon, the victim was taken to Mangalsen District Hospital after being found unresponsive.

Relatives and neighbors of the victim took her to the hospital, claiming that she was suffering from epilepsy and had fainted.

“The crime was uncovered after she regained consciousness,” Pathak explained.

Three hours after arriving at the hospital, the girl regained consciousness.

“She was so traumatized that even after regaining consciousness she could not speak for a long time,” said Ganga Budha Magar, the hospital’s spokesperson.

During a counseling session at the hospital, the victim confessed that the perpetrator raped her when she came out of the shed to defecate at around 2 a.m.

However, the victim’s relatives and the town’s residents remained silent – perhaps to cover up the crime.

According to Budha Magar, the victim suffered injuries in her private parts.

The victim went to the chhau shed as she was on her period.

The Chhaupadi tradition – an outdated social custom in which menstruating girls, women and mothers after childbirth are considered impure and forced into three days of isolation – is still practiced in many regions of Sudurpaschim and Karnali provinces.

Sexual assaults, deaths from suffocation (in winter when they make fires to keep warm) and snake bites in Chhau sheds are common reports.