SAGAR SHRESTHA

Inspired by revolutionary women leaders like Rosa Luxemburg, Jiang Qing, Clara Zetkin, and Nadezhda Krupskaya, young Nepali girls picked up guns during Nepal's decade long insurgency with the dream of liberating their kind from exploitation and destitution.

The Phulmatis, Rupmatis, Batulis, and Putalis who had once identified themselves with their international icons even took up revolutionary names and did their best to live up to their noms de guerre. They did not break down even after being tortured and raped and many even sacrificed their lives for the movement.

Six years onwards, the tables have turned and these brave women have become as helpless as before. The Phoolmatis and Roopmatis who broke social barriers and married across castes to end discrimination are now disowned by their families. Homeless, they are forced to wait at the doorsteps of the leaders with whom they once walked shoulder to shoulder.

These cadres gave up their lives and future for the leaders who have shown complete disregard to their sacrifice. The women who provided security to people like Baburam and Prachanda are today left searching for their own safety. All they get from their erstwhile comrades is empty assurances.

Having fought the war for 10 years, they are forced to watch powerful people monopolise the party while those who fought to establish it are deserted by the leaders.

The leadership seems to have put their trust on outsiders and wartime deserters, rather than the faithful ones. Those who openly criticised the party until recently have now become its greatest advocates. And those who were absent from the battlefields while the war raged on in the countryside have been unconditionally reinstated.

Since then the establishment has been involved in suspicious financial dealings, abandoned its pro-people ideals, and failed to achieve its political goals. The party that was the most revolutionary when it came to women's liberation now openly promotes oppression.

Yesterday, those who abused women were punished and Comrade Chairman would tell us, "Women are our iron pillars against counter-revolution." Today, these iron posts have been left to rust and those who bled and toiled for the revolution have been all but forgotten.

For the women who joined the revolution, the party was their home. But now they are living like orphans. The dreams of living and dying like Rosa, Jiang, and Nadezhda are shattered. From being Jwala and Kranti, the women have reverted back to being Batuli and Putali.

Aruna Rayamajhi

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