One of the shelter girls, her name is Parvati, has realised that speaking up her actual situation can be a way of saving herself.
Parvati, was born in Dolakhha district. During the war, the Maoists arrived to her village and tried to force her to join them. The only desire of that 15 year old girl was continuing her studies, so she had to flee her village and arrived to Kathmandu.
Her uncle lived in the capital, and accepted her home, but after some time, he told her she had to find a job because he was not able to take care of her anymore. Parvati, being a teenager, found herself alone in the streets of Kathmandu. She finally found a friend from her village who had managed pretty well in the capital who offered to pay for a security guard training so that she could get the job and give the money back.
Parvati started her new job as security guard of a dance bar in Thamel. She started a new life. As time went by, she realised that there was one man who kept coming to see her everyday. He was around, looking and after work he used to follow her. One day that man came and talked to her. He said he liked her much and wanted to meet her. Parvati didn’t listen to him and continued with her life. But this 17 year old women to be, started developing feelings about men. One year after their first talk, Parvati decided that if that man had been following her for so long, he couldn’t be a bad person and agreed to start meeting him. He was an army man. She finally fell in love. And they wanted to marry.
Parvati called her family back in the village with the good news. But this time, her big sister (who is a teacher in the village school) was very mad at her because she still hadn’t been married, and so it wasn’t Parvati’s time at the moment.
On the other side, there was the pressure of her loved man, so she decided to let down her family and start a new life in love and happily ever after. They went to court, arranged the papers, and got married.
Life was good, until that man started saying to Parvati that she should go to Dubai, Qatar or Saudi Arabia to work for a couple of years so that she made money because they couldn’t manage to make a living. Paravati refused, she didn’t want to leave him. At this point, her husband started using the force to convince her. Beatings started. And mental torture became a daily routine. Parvati decided then to start looking for a job. She thought that if her husband had the money, she would be safe.
And finally found herself working at a massage parlour, where forced sex was involved. As she came home with some money, her husband was happy and the beatings weren't as hard or usual.
One day, Parvati heard an interview about Raksha on the radio. It was our Menuka Didi, talking about her work and desire of liberty for all nepali women.
Parvati found the NGO and came to share her situation. The shelter program was just starting and she was our first beneficiary.
Searching for information about her husband, we found out that he had had two other women he did send abroad for work. And when they came back, he asked for divorce. As they wouldn’t accept it, he would torture them physically, mentally, so that in the end, they would also want to divorce.
Maybe you know about the vicious circle of domestic violence. After a couple of months, Parvati’s husband contacted her and started promising his love again. Of course, a women in love, usually falls in same lies. And so, she left the shelter, knowing that the doors were opened if any problem. After three weeks she came back, full of bruises.
Nowadays, Parvati is a self empowered women. By herself, she decided to fight her husband, get divorce papers and let Nepal’s authorities and the world know the real story about an army man, who inside home uses his army shoes to step on his women’s body.
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