The Royal Nepalese Army, the last instrument of state, is being mobilized to
suppress the Maoist movement in Nepal. Suppression and repression are not new
phenomena in Nepal, especially after 1996, when CPN (Maoist) declared People's War.
Before promulgation of emergency, police force and Special Task Forces (STF) were
used against the masses. However, after the promulgation of emergency (first in the year
2001), military rule has been imposed in addition to mobilization of above forces.
Corresponding1y the level of repression has increased many folds. What effect all these
have on women is worth noting as they constitute the largest marginalized group who are
fighting against this feudal patriarchal state in various capacities.
Universally rape has been used by various states as an instrument of repression
directed against rebellious women; however, there is cultural dimension to its use and
effect in various countries, especially in feudal countries. In Iran during Khomeini era,
revolutionary women were raped before they were killed because according to their
religious belief, virgin women if killed go to heaven. Hence, to make sure that they went
to hell, they were subjected to rape before being killed. In Nepal, where the state religion
is Hindu, where virginity is worshipped in the form of Kumari Puja (the living Goddess
of Nepal who is virgin), virginity is valued as a symbol of purity, prestige and pride for
unmarried Hindu women thus enhancing prestige of her family and community. Thus, the
use of rape as an instrument of repression in Nepal is to make women culturally impure,
frivolous, unfit for marriage, thus, shaming the whole family or community.
In Nepal there is growing shift of pattern of brutality on women. Just few months
before PW started there was massive police operation in the name of Romeo operation
(1995) in Rolpa, the heartland of CPN(Maoist), where six women were molested and
tortured for being sympathetic to Maoist. In the beginning when PW had started women
cadres and sympathizers were generally teased, molested or at most raped and then left to
flee or were imprisoned. But as the tempo of PW heightened, with the increased
militarization of state, women started to be targeted more in the form of group raping but
not killing them yet in mass. To frighten the masses women suspected to be Maoist or
sympathizers of Maoist have been marched nakedly in front of public, taken photographs
in naked state. They have been subjected to repeated rape with all forms of sadistic
torture on private parts while in custody. To humiliate both men and women Maoist
cadres and sympathizers, they have been subjected to exposing themselves nakedly
before each other and forcing to lie on top of each other. There have been cases of rape
committed on whole family whenever armed forces go to the villages for search
operations. A typical such case is that of a family in Marinkhola of Sindhuli, where a
sixty five years old grandmother, a thirty five years old wife and seventeen years old
daughter were raped at the same time. In Dolkha district, Devi Khadka, a Maoist cadre
who was going to attend student's meeting was brutally raped in the police custody in
April 1998 by group of police force. She dared to bare out all what had happened to her
naming the police offers like Madhav Thapa (DSP), Shivakumar Lamichhane (inspector),
Navaraj Rijal (inspector) and dozen other police force. Dolkha district being near to

Kathmandu valley, this case got good coverage in mass media thus they were forced to
let her off. Her private parts were ripped off, her womb was lacerated. In her article in
Janadesh titled ‘I will take revenge through battlefield’ she showed political maturity by
saying that she will not blame those police force who raped her rather the old feudal state
which made them behave like animals to do the heinous crime. In Rolpa alone, village
after village there were cases of mass rape on Maoist cadres, sympathizers and simple
villagers. In Uwa four women were raped in 1998 in Rolpa, in Harjung all available
women including 12 years old Jasa Pun were rounded into a school and were
systematically raped by the police force. In Oat on 3 August 1998, 47 villagers were
rounded up and raped by about 150 police force after forcing men to flee under the terror
of gun. This is one of the reasons why today Rolpa has become main base area of PW,
because people, particularly women had to join Maoist movement to take revenge on the
old state. This revenge has been transformed into political consciousness by the
CPN(Maoist) through its various organs of mobilization.
After the promulgation of emergency and deployment of royal army there has been
qualitative as well as quantitative shift in the way women are punished. They have been
not only brutally raped but are also killed and sometime such corpses are displayed to the
masses to terrorize them. On 10th April, 2002, a platoon member named Roza in Gandak
region, who was twenty years old, was arrested in the morning. She was subjected to rape
by fifteen armed forces, her dead naked body with tongue drawn out and tied with rope,
both her breasts were cut, both her legs were torn apart wide open wide gash wound
above her eyes were displayed to public for three days. On the fourth day the Maoist
combatants managed to get hold of her body and duly cremated.
With press censorship during emergency and curfew promulgated, armed forces have
been having field’s day torturing and raping women. This becomes far more common and
bold the more the remote the region they operate. Similarly in November 1996 Kamala
Bhatt, the then secretary of All Nepalese Women’s Association (Revolutionary) of
Gorkha district was found murdered near river bed side with her naked body. All these
are deliberate strategies, which have been adopted to send the message that women
should not be sent to challenge the present state. Today the Royal Army is trying to
extend the culture of rape in mass scale by unleashing vigilantes on villagers by allowing
them to rape women and burn the houses of villagers. This tactic they are using in areas
where the Maoists are yet to consolidate their position. They are also unleashing local
goons to do their dirty job for them.
Rape is manifestation of men’s power over women, when it is mixed with hatred
it becomes more violent and fascistic. Thus rape as a biological instrument of repression
has been deliberately and systematically used in any offensive conflict, war, in order to
achieve tactical and strategic aim. Tactically, rape is used as a weapon to send the
message to rebellious women that their place belong to their home, and also the message
to her family and community that daughters should not be sent to rebellious movements,
organizations, Parties. Strategically, rape is used to bolster patriarchal values, sexist
ideology in order to reinforce masochism in armed force and to feminize the enemy, in
order to conquer them. It also helps in brutalizing their men with less chances of being hit
back, as women are generally trained to be passive and docile. It also has psychological

advantage of healing the wounded and defeated ego of armed men, especially when the
armed force is badly defeated by the revolutionary forces. Usually any successful armed
assault by the revolutionary force is followed by many search operations in the affected
areas by the reactionary armed forces. There they generally go about raping women,
burning houses and looting properties to vent out their frustration and revenge. In many
cases the reactionary state agency encourages rape as a reward, a privilege for
compensating for the rigorous barrack lifestyle of armed forces. Lastly rape is considered
safer violence as it is least reported, and even if reported hard to prove. This is specially
so in remote villages in Nepal, which are far to reach from the mass media personnel and
medical personnel to prove the rape.
However, use of rape as an instrument of repression by the reactionary forces has
negatively benefited revolutionary forces. First of all, the rape perpetuated is political in
nature thus it reinforces the political message of rebellion. It is like any war-injury
proudly proving their commitment to the cause for which they are willing to sacrifice.
Unlike domestic or private rape where rape victim is made to feel guilty, this type of rape
makes political statement, thus making the victim more determined. Secondly, such rapes
expose the sexist nature of exploitative class based state apparatus. Thirdly, they are able
to expose the hollowness of reactionary ideology whereby, they use sexual force as an
instrument of weapon against the ideological1y equipped revolution. Fourthly, such rapes
are able to transform the fury of raped victim, her family, and community into fighting
force. Fifthly, the sense of helplessness, isolation that is generated amongst the masses
from the state apparatus after every such mass rape episode is in turn transformed into
organizational force, thus giving them security and sense of belonging to the new state.
Sixthly, such acts on women have helped in forging unity between oppressed men and
women to fight together against the state apparatus, thus making them more gender and
class conscious. Such raped women are helped into rehabilitation by either encouraging
them to join the movement or by involving them in building new state so that they forget
the scar in the process of collective work. In fact the rapidity with which those raped
victims have regained their strength through such measures is worth analyzing [take the
example of Devi Khadka, who symbolized rape victim by the state apparatus, today she is
happily married, she is currently regional bureau member of CPN(Maoist)]. Seventhly,
such state sponsored rape is also exposing the so-called neutrality of various NGO
sponsored women’s organizations who have not spoken a word against such heinous
crime on women while they shout on top of their voice against domestic violence. This
also applies to some of women’s organizations under different political parties who make
big speech about women’s exploitation but shy away from making comments on state
sponsored terror on Maoist women or sympathizers. Eighthly, such pervasive behavior
eventually hits back on their own force in the form of being violent on their family
members ( take the case of police in-charge of Tharpu police post in Kalikot, Nepa
Bahadur Shrestha, he killed his wife and then later on killed himself after brawl with his
wife in regards to his bad drinking and womanizing habits, this was reported in Sarthi
weekly paper on 29th August 1999), or even to the point of raping their own wives or
their junior's wives or making advances on their own women staffs. Here it is important
to make some distinction, such rapes are usually carried out by the higher officers and are
usually ordered by them to lower rung of police force to do the same after they have had
the fill. Usually those who have shown leniency towards the victims have been punished

often, some times even killed. Lastly, such mass rape is making mockery of ‘virgin
worship’; thus undermining the feudal culture. For revolutionary communists, rape is not
considered as moral issue as the ruling state might have wanted to; instead they consider
it as a form of state violence specific to women with the aim to punish women for
rebelling against their feminine role. Such violence forces communists to take up gender
issues as important component of class issues making them gender sensitive besides
being class conscious.
In fact increasing participation of women in Maoist movement despite their terror
tactics has forced Royal Army to recruit women into their monolithic masculine army.
They have been forced to take this step more for practical reasons than strategic. First of
all they no longer want women victim of present war joining the Maoists, secondly, they
increasingly need women for intelligence net-work and for establishing mass contact,
thirdly, they want to present before the world that RNA is gender friendly having place
for women. However, it will be worth analyzing how the Royal Army with its feudal
mindset will treat their women force and how they will deal with rape, molestation of
Maoist women prisoners and Maoist sympathizers in villages without affecting the
morale of their own women force. Or whether such acts will not hit back on their own
women force by the very same habituated brutal men-force. Or how successfully they are
able to brutalize their own women forces who may enjoy watching or even participating
in raping Maoist women. Such scene is not impossible to imagine as we have recently
seen how so called civilized American women force took turn to enjoy sexual
exploitation, sodomonizing Muslim prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison along with their men
force.
The number of women being tortured, raped and killed during the nine years
period of PW in Nepal has been phenomenal. However, there has been very poor effort
on the part of human rights organizations, civil societies, organizations working for
women issues to record and raise this issue responsibly. This may be due to lack of
evidence, details and due to remoteness of place that has occurred. It is the duty of CPN
(Maoist) and its women front, All Nepalese Women’s Association (Revolutionary) to
collect detail information (backed by photos of raped victims if possible) or produce
victims before the human rights organizations, so that the concerned culprits can be at
least booked and punished. Similarly, All Nepalese Women’s Association
(Revolutionary) should try to form united front with various other women’s organization
to sensitize and protest against state sponsored rape and to collectively protest against
such heinous crime against rebellious women. In that respect it is good that All Nepalese
Women’s Association (Revolutionary) called for Nepal bandh on March 8th to condemn
state terrorism, massacre and rape of women in 2003. The recent exposure of brutal rape
and killing of four Maoist cadres, Durga Bishankhe, Kaushila Pokharel, Revakala Tiwari
and Renu Dahal in army custody by the RNA reported by 'Jana Astha Weekly' in August
2005 is a bold step which should be welcomed. In fact the opening of the office of the
United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal will to some
extent help in curving such human rights violations in Nepal.
Lastly for Nepalese women, the deployment of Royal Nepalese Army symbolizes the last
determining force representing monarchical system, the hall mark of feudalism and the

number one enemy of women's liberation movement. Hence politically and militarily
they are all the more determined to fight against this feudal force which treats women as
biological force to become baby producing machine and to be reduced to domestic
slavery.
In fact the increased number of women joining the Maoist movement is also an
indicator of level of violence perpetuated by the royal armed force on the women in the
name of searching Maoists. They also reflect the social condition which forces women to
opt out more dangerous but more freer and adventurous life.
5th September, 2005