Teenager dies after being banished for MENSTRUATING

A 15-year-old girl died after she was banished to a poorly ventilated shed because she was menstruating

 

Roshani Tiruwa's father discovered her body in a mud and stone hut, where police believe she suffocated after lighting a fire to keep warm before going to bed

The teenager was forced to stay in the shed in western Nepal in an age-old Hindu practice which was banned over a decade ago

Police have launched an investigation into the girl's death, which is the second in the same region blamed on the ancient practice of chhaupadi

 

Chhaupadi is a practice where Hindus banish menstruating girls and women to animal sheds for the duration of their period as they are thought to be impure.

The practice was outlawed by Nepal's government in 2005, but sporadic reports of women and girls dying in attacks by wild animals and from snake bites, or being raped while they are in seclusion in the sheds, indicate the archaic practice still continues in the country's remote west.

Roshani's death occurred in Gajra village in Nepal's Achham district, nearly 300 miles west of KathmandU

 

Police Inspector Badri Prasad Dhakal told the Thomson Reuters Foundation: "While we are waiting for the post-mortem report for the cause of her death, we believe she died due to suffocation

"She had lit a fire to keep herself warm before going to bed in the shed which had no ventilation."

Some villages believe they will suffer a natural disaster or other misfortune if women and girls are isolated when they menstruate.

They are also not permitted to drink milk and are given less food to eat during their period.

Critics argue the government's efforts to stamp out chhaupadi and child marriage in the Himalayan nation has been inadequate.

But officials say they are battling age-old attitudes which cannot be changed overnight.