Medieval.

This is the most disturbing report I have ever read in the newspaper. It got a small box in the national section of the Himalayan Times- it should have come out in the Medieval Times.

Himalayan Times
Kathmandu, March 24
Tika R. Pradhan

A gang of people led by a school headmistress forcibly made a woman eat her own excreta in Lalitpur, accusing her of practicing witchcraft. The headmistress of Gadi Bhanjyang Primary School, Bimala Lama, forced Kalli Kumari BK, 48, to confess that she killed locals in the area with her black magic and forced her to eat her own feces.

Fortunately, a police head constable came to know about the incident and informed the Federation of Nepali Journalists about it. He has provided shelter to three members of BK's family despite death threats from both his and her family. Talking to the Himalayan Times over telephone, BK said that around 50 women and men tried to amputate her breast with blades and knifes on Friday.

"They forced me to eat my own excreta in public," she said, adding that they also forced her to "confess" that she was behind the deaths of all the people in the village.

BK yelled for help via telephone to this scribe, saying that members of the society had threatened to cut her into pieces. "How long will you find shelter? We are going to see for how long the police will protect you," her attackers said.

"On my request, four policemen had reached the site today but to no avail," Ghimire said, who is currently serving at the Metropolitan Police Commissioners Office, Rani Pokhari.

On the initiation of Jagaran Media Centre, representatives of human rights organizations, National Dalit Commission, National Women's Commission and the media are going to visit the site Wednesday.

This is the first reported incident taking place in the Kathmandu Valley involving and educated woman, Lama, who tortured a woman on the charges of witchcraft.

All I can say is, I would like to meet the woman who instigated this brutality and take her to task. It makes my blood boil as a woman, an activist and as a human being. She is the principal at a school for Nepal's youth. What does that say?

This happened in the heart of the city, not the village. That is the most appalling part about it. Women's rights in this country are fragile- everywhere.