Our Songs from the Forest is a tender solicitation by photographer Uma Bista into the hills of Achham, where we meet a chorus of young women coming of age in a fast-changing society. These young women are learning how to navigate severely oppressive cultural practices alongside new aspirations of equality. Little by little, they are beginning to ask questions and push boundaries.

Without a doubt, life in Achham is not easy, and the patriarchy unabashedly cruel. Women are considered impure while they menstruate, and are banished to a rudimentary shed - the infamous chhau-goth - for 7 whole days of every month. For 7 days of every month, these young women are deemed untouchable.

It is believed that the gods are angered if women break the rules of chhaupadi: Deuta risauchan. The women are then held responsible for all possible ills that might befall the family - especially the menfolk - including accidents, illnesses, deaths, poor harvests, failures in school exams: anything that may bring hardship, sorrow or shame to the family.

Despite new laws that criminalize these practices, fear runs deep: fear of angering the gods, fear of being labeled immoral, fear of being ostracized by the community, fear of change.

Can such fears be replaced by the fear of legal consequences? Will destroying the chhau-goth free us of the traditions associated with it? How to push for freedom from the everyday Chhaupadi?

Uma Bista takes us into the forests around Oligaun, where our young friends seek freedom from the daily oppression. In the forest, the skies are open. In the forest, they feel no fear. In the forest, they sing and laugh as loudly as they wish.

May their fearless songs forever resonate louder.

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IT'S NICE THAT  |  BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY  |  PHOTO CIRCLE   |  ART FORUM 

   

I notice things around me, how society treat woman and man differently. Being in the present taking a position on my existence. I fight for my dreams and passion inside society.

The photographs of several girls in their teen ages to mid twenties reflect the dreams of females in Nepal. How the women in such a tender age dream of working for their own, making a living and pursuing a career. These women staring in a direction reflect their thoughts and wishes of making a life of their own and creating an identity. The females were in their favorite places — the place of their own. The place which they feel it belonged to them, where they felt happy and content. These women who were also interviewed before taking their photographs dream of standing on their own shoes. Women in today's society want to make a space of their own. These photographs of the females reflect their own spaces. The women dream of becoming a social worker, designer, air hostess and live a happy and dignified life among others. These women who are inspired either by their mother or from the people in the society reflect the condition of women in my country. These youths are the representatives of the growing generation who want a space of their own in a male dominated society like ours, where a woman still has to struggle for her identity, equity and equality. Ongoing project...

For a Nepali woman, cultural and religious rituals are expected to be part of our daily lives. Major festivals like Teej, Chhath, Swasthani Brata, Gaura Parbha among others, punctuate the year. Many of these festivals require women to perform all sorts of rituals, including strict fasting in the name of god, our families, our husbands, and our children. I have always questioned these practices in my own life. Why don’t the men fast in the name of their wives and children? On these festivals, I choose to go out and make photographs. I talk to women and ask them questions about why they are doing what they are doing. It is important to question culture and society.

Laxmi Theeng has been living alone with her two daughters ever since her husband died in an accident three years ago. But rather than be caught up in her loneliness or grief, she prefers to live a free and joyful life. She runs a small shop to cover living expenses and pay for her children’s education. Laxmi’s family arranged her marriage to Jeeban Tamang when she was in her teens. She says, “I could not complete my studies because I got married at an early age, and I had a health problem.” Barely a year after her marriage, Laxmi had to be operated on because of a liver infection. She lives in a rented home in Kapan, in the north of Kathmandu, with her daughters Jina and Jiya. Her daughters study at Bigyan Higher Secondary School, which is close by. Jina is in Class Five and Jiya is in UKG this year. Sometimes, Laxmi says, her children irritate her and she becomes angry with them. But she lives for them, and hopes to go abroad to earn more money.

Gadhimai festival is a month-long Hindu festival that is held once every five years at the Gadhimai temple of Bariyarpur in Bara District in southern Nepal. The event involves the world’s second largest sacrificial slaughter of animals including water buffaloes, pigs, goats, chicken – with the goal of pleasing Gadhimai, the goddess of power. Most of the people from Madheshis and 70% of the devotees are the people from the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are participates in the festival. Devotees believe that animal sacrifices to the Hindu goddess Gadhimai will end evil and bring prosperity in their life.

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