Nepal’s porn ban will soon complete its half year run. It is a good chance to see if the highly criticized measure really has a purpose.
The Context
These last few years the number of vicious violent sexual assaults against young women have stained the image of the country and ignited public opinion. As no less than sixty percent of the rape victims were under sixteen years old. What’s worst is a third are under the age of ten…
The Trigger that leads towards a popular rise of rage, leading government’s decision to make a step forward in the legal response, was the famous case of Nirmala Panta, raped and murdered in western Nepal. In which, police were accused of “covering up for the suspects”. The previous month another despicable act was reported: A ten years old girl raped and choked to death by five men involved.
Nirmala Panta (Nepal mountain news)
These are just a few of the horrible known stories brought to public attention. Silent and fear are one of the main weapons used by predators. Also, unjustified shame carried by innocent victims due to cultural pressure.
But the contestation, especially raging on social media, pushed forward the government to submit a long-awaited answer. A reaction that would finally show they shared the general disapproval.
Thus, pornography was designed as the scapegoat of that social tragedy.
On the 21st of September 2018, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology officially declared that it was going to ban digital pornography. A large popular disappointment as google record shows that 70% of the search engine in Nepal regularly visit those internet sites.
credit: www.aljazeera.com
The Disregards
“Once more it’s old people making decisions for the youth!“
A Public Representative from Marie Stopes NGO said, “The pornographic ban is proof that people don’t want to acknowledge the fact kids are having sex.“
“I think the danger comes from repression.”
Its obvious sexual topics are still strongly taboo in the Hinduism cultures. As a result instead of learning youth how to properly engage sexual intercourse, parents, teachers, and government deprive them of the education by fear there will practice it. Yes, even in schools, where sexual education is only optional in most establishment programs, as most instructors and headmasters prefer to skip it (according to NGO Marie Stopes) even though it is mandatory since 2017.
A sexual rights activist and a representative from the Internet Society in Nepal, Shubha Kayastha said:
“A better approach to addressing sexual violence would be to empower people and respect their sexual agency, and punish the perpetrators of sex crimes.“
For most critics, the ban is “merely a diversionary tactic to hide the government’s incompetence in prosecuting rapists” (she declared on www.aljazeera.com).
Credit: Daily Mail
Rape, a tree that hides the forest…
It’s only been a few months since the ban has been established, and the situation hasn’t evolved since. The number of sexual misconduct reported by the media, and very briefly by local police, remains the same. Since 2019 has started the Himalayan Times has shared regular news releases constantly putting forward the drastic treatment a lot of women still go through… A ten years old girl was found raped and dead in Biratnagar during January, and two days ago it was an 11 years old girl found in the same circumstances in Mithila Municipality.
Nepal is starting to be progressively infamous on the international stand. Its name now sticks alongside other unpopular countries like India, Pakistan, Yemen… countries considered among the most dangerous for a woman according to The Thomson Reuters Foundation survey, 2018. Whenever the worldwide women rights topic is engaged, Nepal is far from a positive example. United Nation’s Global Data Base on Violence against Women, ranks Nepal as the 115th on The Gender Inequality Index (Yemen ranks 148, India 130) as 25% women aged between 15-49 years experience “intimate partner physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their lifetime”.
It seems, the real problem, its origins, is the women status in Nepali society and too little awareness programs on the issue. Pornography is a far stretched explanation for what appears to be an educational and cultural flaw.
The violent patriarchal domination many individuals think they rightfully and traditionally own on women, leads to a banalisation of their problems and status. And the stigmatization of victims :
“A teenage girl who was gang-raped by three youths three years ago in Nawalpur of Nawalparasi district has been further victimized. She was denied education owing to the social stigma and poverty.” The Himalayan Times 08/02/19
This does not result in the consumption of sexual content (pornography) but non-existent modern education. The more effective solutions appear to be the following:
- The need to know how to respectfully treat the other genders in our modern times.
- The need to learn how sexual desire can be legally and properly fulfilled in our societies.
- The need to be threatened by the certainty of a jail sentence, if some choose to follow their questionable moral standards above the law, and ignore what are now universal respectful usages.
In Two Words: Education and Sanctions
However, the path towards equality, and consequently progress, has been engaged. But it is still a long and uneasy road that has only just started to be slowly pursued in current politics.
So, measures are being put in place, but actions and results are still lacking.
Some may ask: what is the point of constantly voting new laws for women’s protection if they are never followed by arrests?
