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Another young woman has died in a menstrual hut in Nepal.
According to AFP, a 15-year-old girl died after being banished to a hut while she had her period. The practice, called ‘chaupadi’ has been banned but continues to occur in Nepal and parts of Africa and India.
“We are investigating the case. We suspect that she died of suffocation from the smoke of a fire she lit to keep herself warm,” local district inspector Badri Prasad Dhakal told AFP.
According to local reports, the girl went to the shed after eating dinner around 6 p.m. She lit a fire before going to sleep. Tiruwa’s father found her body the next morning.
The death comes after 21-year-old Dambara Upadhyay was completing her final sleep in a menstrual hut in the western Nepalese village of Timalsena on November 18.
The custom is due to longstanding fear that women who are menstruating will contaminate their homes and offend Hindu gods if they remain within their community.
Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is said to be conducting a government investigation into menstrual seclusion, a practice that has reportedly claimed the lives of at least eight women since 2007.
According to The New York Times, the Nepalese government are now reportedly contemplating a nationwide ‘crack down’ on ‘chhaupaudi’, as the Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare has said it will consider implementing laws to punish families who adhere to this deeply entrenched tradition.
