Dispatches: Report from the People's War in Nepal, Part 15
New Women, New People's Power
Revolutionary Worker #1033, December 5, 1999
We have only been in this village one day, but we are scheduled to leave this afternoon to continue our journey through Rukum. The kids have been playing volleyball in the schoolyard but, late in the day, the area is cleared and prepared for a mass farewell meeting. Everyone in the village comes out for the ceremony and the atmosphere is very festive. The local militia, made up of about a dozen young men, lines up in the yard and they give me and my translator a salute as we walk to the front of the crowd where a long wooden table has been set up.
The ceremony is full of heart and warmth. There are brief speeches and the local cultural group performs. Then leaders of the local mass organizations step forward to present me with some gifts--cloth woven in the local villages, two handmade bags, one with the name "Rukum" embroidered on it, and a traditional knotted rope, used to carry heavy loads strapped to your forehead.
The sun is low in the sky when the meeting is finished and our entourage gets ready to leave. All the villagers line up along the way to say goodbye and the local militia leads the way, giving us a serious escort. As we head out on the path, everyone waves and shouts, "lal salaam" (red salute).
It is dusk as we leave, and the sun disappears behind the mountains soon after we set off. So we have to travel in the dark. After several hours we aren't anywhere near a village where we can get shelter, and the comrades tell me it will take about four more hours to get to another house. We decide to sleep out in the open tonight, and, luckily, we come across some shepherds who gladly offer us a place by their fire. They are traveling with a big herd, and we spend the night sleeping amidst barking dogs and baa-ing sheep, milling about only a few feet from our heads.
The next day we arrive in another village in Rukum where some relatives of people killed by the police have gathered to talk with me. As I hear the stories of these martyrs, it strikes me just how much women are playing an equal role in making sacrifices --fighting and dying--in this revolution.
In the first three and a half years of the People's War more than 800 people have become martyrs--and nearly 100 of them have been women. Many women have lost their husbands and sons. Many women have been murdered, raped, and brutalized by the police. And I hear numerous stories of women who have remained fierce and determined, even in the face of torture.
One woman organizer tells me: "After the initiation the reactionaries put a lot of effort into trying to stop women from participating in the People's War. Nearly 50 women have already become martyrs, mostly in the western region. Thousands of women have been raped and many women are in jail. I'll give you one example. During a local election the police came to ask women to participate in the elections. But the women refused. So the police rounded up more than 14 women and raped them all in one place. There was one 12-year-old girl that they raped who was so badly injured she could not even walk for one week.
"In some cases women have been `disappeared.' And sometimes, the police will try to force women they have arrested to marry them. There is a Nepalese tradition that when a woman gets married, red powder (tikka) is put on her forehead and the police will do this to the women they arrest in order to humiliate them. They also put arrested women in police uniforms and order them to act like police. But the women have refused to do this and they don't tell the police any information or secrets.
"There have been a number of incidents where women have been tortured in the west. In one area, the police tortured the secretary of the women's organization. She was pregnant at the time and the police raped her. She broke through the police encirclement and tried to escape, but after being beaten she was too weak to run away, and the police shot and killed her. But even though this kind of torture and repression is happening, almost all the women believe that only the New Democratic Revolution will liberate them."
When I was in Kathmandu, Rekha Sharma, President of the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary), told me about a number of other instances in which the police have taken especially vicious measures against revolutionary women. She said:
"The police go to the homes of people they suspect of fighting in the People's War and they ask the women, `Where is your husband?' or `Where is your son?' In the Pyuautan district, for example, a husband who was a teacher was not home, and his wife Radhad Ghimise was pregnant. The police came and asked her about her husband, then arrested her and took her to the forest. No one knew what happened to her, and then two to three weeks later she was found beheaded. Another example is Depa Khadka, who was the chairperson of All Nepal Women's Organization (Revolutionary) in the Dolakha district. She was arrested because she had a pad of stationery with the letterhead of our organization. She was gang raped in custody. Another woman went to visit her husband in jail and was beaten and later died."
Under feudalism, rape victims are stigmatized. But the revolution has replaced this shame with class hatred. And the cruelty of the police, Rekha tells me, has not diminished the spirit of the revolutionary women in Nepal. Rekha says: "Women who have lost people in the war, like their husband or son, are not just sitting around weeping--but are showing the spirit of revolution. And when the women are interrogated, even when they are brutalized, they do not speak to the enemy. "
Women in the 3-in-1s
In Nepal, women's oppression is rooted in the feudal and semi-feudal system of production. The peasants rely on the land in order to survive. But women cannot legally own or inherit land on equal terms with men. Also, in some regions where there are big landlords, peasants face debt slavery. In this situation, where peasants have to work for free to pay off a debt, some women are forced to provide sex and labor to a landlord.
The agrarian revolution is central to the New Democratic revolution in Nepal. And the question of women owning land is directly addressed by the People's War. Land reform is carried out under the slogan, "Land to the tiller," and the principle of "women's equal right to property" is applied. In the areas where new people's power is being practiced, many widows and unmarried women have had land restored by the people's courts--land which had been stolen by landlords and other reactionaries. This is only one of the ways new people's power is starting to liberate women.
Throughout the guerrilla zones, women are participating in the "3-in-1 committees" that have been organized to oversee and run various aspects of village life. As party members, as members of the people's army, and as participants from the united front mass organizations--women are playing a major role in exercising new people's power.
Almost every single peasant I talked with said they could not grow enough to feed their family for the whole year. So for several months each year, the men leave to look for work in the cities or in India--which means the women and children are left to work the land and maintain the household. Now in areas where the People's War is strong, collective farming is helping households where husbands are either away fighting in the revolution or have gone away to work in the cities.
One woman organizer also explained:
"Because there is so much repression, the situation is such that most of the men cannot stay in the villages openly. But the masses of women are still living in the villages. So it is the women who are carrying out much of the new people's power through the 3-in-1 form. The women are dealing with many local problems, like quarrels and disputes among the people. In the 3-in-1 forms, the women make up about 30 to 50 percent of the members."
When I talk with a Central Committee member of All Nepal Women's Organization (Revolutionary) in Rolpa, I ask her how they are dealing with cases of women being mistreated by their husbands. One example she gives is a situation where a man in one village had cheated on his wife. She says:
"The women's organization led the masses of women to punish him by putting a shoe garland [his shoes tied together made into a 'necklace'] on him, painting his face, and parading him around. There was another case of a poor peasant woman who went to work in Kathmandu, carrying bricks, and a man from this district raped her. Our women's organization found out about this and went to his home. They arrested him and punished him--they cut off the hair on half his head and made him hold his ears and repeatedly stand up and sit down in front of everyone. We exposed his crime to all the masses. And the people support this kind of work we are carrying out in the local areas."
I also learn that polygamy--where men take a second wife--is a feudal tradition practiced in Nepal. The party opposes the customs of polygamy and arranged marriages. Where the People's War is strong there is a lot of struggle to put an end to these practices. And in some areas, the 3-in-1 committees have implemented new policies to ensure the rights of women oppressed by such practices. A woman in Rukum told me:
"In our district there have been many changes in three years in the attitudes and practices regarding women. For example we are involved in the judiciary department (one of the people's power committees). And we take part in solving many problems--like cases of second marriages, where we guarantee the right of property for the first wife. Sometimes the second wife is compelled to leave the marriage because of injustice to the first wife.
"People who want to get divorced appeal to the people's court and we decide the case. Most are women who want to get divorced because of beatings or attempted murder, or other abuses. If a woman demands property from her husband when she gets divorced, the court will help her. The court investigates who is right and wrong in each case.
"Some first wives are neglected after a second marriage. The woman who gets divorced after a second marriage is now free from her husband. According to tradition, if a woman remarries the first husband gets some money from the second husband (like a dowry). But we have now eliminated this practice. In the case of a woman who leaves her husband with no second marriage, there are people who still follow this tradition (of the husband getting some money), but the goal is to eliminate this custom completely.
"Before the initiation there were many cases of husbands beating wives, even among some party cadre. There are now only a few cases of this among the masses. Among our sympathizers and cadre there are hardly any cases. And if the party finds out about any such cases, action is taken against them. People will go to struggle with the husband. If the wife is injured then the women's organization or people's court may compel the husband to give the wife a divorce. There has been no physical punishment of wife beaters, but they have been subjected to humiliation--like painting their face, `shoe garlands,' and being paraded through the village."
The revolution is challenging many other feudal traditions that oppress women--like the strong preference for sons, the treatment of women as "untouchable" during menstruation, and the tradition where widows are supposed to mourn for the rest of their lives. Many of the women I met whose husbands had been killed in the war were defiantly wearing bright clothes and jewelry--which a widow is not supposed to do according to feudal traditions. Some of the traditional celebrations are also being transformed by the revolution. For example, the Hindu celebration "Teej" is a day-long fast imposed on women. On this day married women are supposed to pray for longevity of their husbands and unmarried women are supposed to fast and pray for an eligible husband. Now, this day is being transformed into a day to build support for the People's War.
Revolutionary Women's Organization
Throughout Nepal, all the different political forces, including the reactionary parties in the government, have organized groups of women. But the Maoist women's organizations distinguish themselves by linking the fight against women's oppression with the revolutionary goal of seizing power through armed struggle and establishing a new democratic state.
Rekha Sharm talked about how her group, the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary), sees the relationship between the fight against women's oppression and building support for the People's War:
"We feel very strongly that the problems women are facing can only be solved by overthrowing feudalism and the present system. This is different than the view of reformist women's organizations. Our activities are related to the total solution because we are clear on what is the solution and that the main source of women's oppression is feudalism and the state power. We work to join with the long-term solution--of revolution and a new democratic society--and help to develop the People's War. With the success of the People's War the problems of women will be solved and women will be in a position to get equality. But at the same time we are not just waiting for the long-term solution, and some of our activities are aimed at getting some changes from the government."
Revolutionary women's organizations in the cities popularize and build support for the People's War. But the Maoist women's groups in the countryside are directly involved in the war--encouraging women to join the people's army and the militias, building new forms of people's power and transforming social relations among the people. A woman organizer from the western countryside told me:
"In the beginning days, we started by raising the consciousness of women, like talking about the struggle for equal rights. And we opposed the conservative traditions that oppress women, like the practice where if a woman is married to a man in the countryside, the man's family has to pay a dowry. (In the city, the woman's family has to pay a dowry.) The dowry may be something like some bottles of alcohol, some roti (bread) or goats. So we say that this amounts to the selling of women. So we oppose this kind of practice. Also, in some areas, we have been able to stop alcohol drinking. And as a result, a lot of wife beating has stopped. So in a practical way, many women are attracted to the revolutionary women's organization because of these kinds of things. We have also opposed child marriages and polygamy and we've organized mass actions against polygamy.
"We have built up a number of Chautari (memorials) to martyrs and paths in memory of martyrs. We also help build toilets and promote hygiene in the villages. And we support each other in working on the land--organizing to work collectively. We have literacy programs, and we tell women to have fewer children because of the poor economic conditions. Before the political influence of the revolution, men always had the right to decide when to have children. But nowadays most of the women and men decide this together. And we say that women should have the right to decide if and when they want to get married and have children."
The revolutionary women's organizations also set up classes for women to discuss the People's War and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. And the women tell me that in many areas in Rolpa and Rukum, there are hardly any women who are not in some revolutionary organization. Members of the revolutionary women's organization are as young as 14 years old and as old as 70 years old. But the majority are 15 to 30 years old.
I asked one woman comrade, a Central Committee member of the All Nepal Women's Organization (Revolutionary) in Rolpa, to describe the work of her organization and she said:
"Women have very strong class hatred and love the party more and more because they see that only the Maoists can bring about liberation. Our organization started adult education for both men and women. We have built many monuments to martyrs and we have also built paths for walking cattle.
"By tradition women go to their parents home and take tikka on different festivals. But we break this feudal tradition and don't go to take tikka on these occasions. We are establishing a new culture. Instead of practicing these traditional festivals, we celebrate new festivals like February 13, the anniversary of the initiation of the People's War. For this revolutionary festival we go to meet with the families of martyrs, bring them presents, and take tikka from them.
"If a woman comes to our organization and asks us to punish an oppressor, we help. For example there was one man who drank and beat his wife so she didn't want to stay with him. She came to our organization with her problem. Her husband didn't want to leave her but she wanted to leave him. The women's organization decided that she should leave.
"We also carry food, grain and communications for the party and we do different types of logistics work. We make bullets for muzzle rifles and gunpowder and we set up shops to sell goods to the Party at cost. Local and area committee members make gloves for the squads and platoons. We write the slogans of the party on the walls. We inspire women to join the militia. We produce food for the party and also give chickens and goats to the party."
Many women told me that the men encourage the women to get involved--to develop politically and become full-timers. And there are also many couples in which both the man and woman are committed fighters in the People's War, and when they get married they have a "communist ceremony" instead of a traditional wedding. One woman organizer told me, "Before the initiation there was a lot of support for women in theory, but not always in practice. But this really changed after the initiation, and now women are playing a big role in the People's War."
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Rekha Sharma tells me, "Lenin said that if there is good participation by women the revolution will succeed. The participation of women here is remarkable and women are showing they are not helpless but are strong and equal with men.
"We have heard about women in other countries who are revolutionaries. But now we can see this directly with our own eyes--with you visiting us. We want to give hearty thanks to you for coming here and understanding our conditions and all of our activities. And we hope, through the Revolutionary Worker, you will spread the news about our work, the People's War and our objective situation--to the oppressed women in the U.S., as well as all over the world.
"We hope you will tell the world about how we women are fighting the enemy, making sacrifices and going all out. Such information will have two objectives. It will expose the situation to the exploited masses in the world and inspire them to make revolution. And it will build support for the People's War in Nepal."
To be continued.
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