#HeforShe campaign in Nepal

Around the world, especially in developing countries, many girls and women are facing various forms of violence against them. They are suffering from gender-biased cultural, ritual and social norms and practices. In such cases, we generally present women as helpless and men as perpetrators; but it is not an actual case. We cannot claim women as helpless creatures and men as powerful dominant characters always. When a global research on violence against children was carried out, the UN had clearly specified one of the most important recommendations; i.e. men's and boys' engagements in ending violence against girls and women. We cannot imagine a world without men and women both, so it is very important that both sexes go together.

Since we live in a patriarchal society, we must admit that men are in power. But, if we – men - could transform that power into realization or gender sensitivity, we can create a better world for everyone. With that theme, the UN Women started a campaign worldwide for engagements of boys and men. In Nepal also, the #heforshe campaign is being held in coordination with Young Men for Gender Equality (YM4GE).

With Save the Saptari, an NGO working for people from Dalit communities (considered untouchable in traditional caste system) in Saptari district, Yuwalaya also organized an interaction about the campaign with community volunteers.

Total 27 young volunteers (male and female) participated in the event where Sanjog Thakuri, co-founder of Yuwalaya and Global Ambassador of YM4GE divided participants into 2 groups(male and female) and asked male team to write good characters of men and disliking characters of women and vice versa. Then, for next 15 minutes, both team had a debate. Then, they were requested to share 10 points they like about the opposite sex. At that time both team started to praise each other and the environment became happy. Thakuri then discussed differences between sex and gender, and role of male in relation to women empowerment.

During the discussion some female participants shared how men can support them, what kind of support they are getting from their husbands, fathers and sons. The helps they described seemed trivial, but meant a lot to them. The boys also shared some experiences of supporting women and how they were teased by others while doing household chores.

After the discussion on status of gender in Saptari district, Thakuri shared about YM4GE and global campaign #heforshe and had a photo session.

Thakuri here shares a special and exciting information about the event:

The Mehandi movement

The day the discussion was held was 1st day of Shrawan, according to the Nepali calendar. This is the month, when many women fast every Monday to worship the Lord Shiva for their (would-be) husband. Culturally, women also put mehandi (a paste that is bought in a cone shaped tube and is made into designs for men and women) on their palms in multiple.

After we completed the photo session, a woman stood up and asked me, "If we are discussing gender discrimination here, sir, why only we put mehandi on our palms only? Why not men?" Everyone laughed, but I couldn't answer.

She challenged me, "Can you put the mehandi on your hand and start ending this discriminative culture?" Without thinking for a second, I stood up and showed my palm for them to design. Now everybody started to think what kind of design they would do in my hand. Something just clicked in my mind and it looked like this (see right):
Recalling that moment, I think today that, the mehandi I put on my palm can symbolically be a spark of a larger movement, if it gets expanded among many men like me. Together, we all can work for women around us, which in turn will make our world a better place.