TO GO WITH Nepal-women-religion-society-chhaupadi,FEATURE by Frankie Taggart
TO GO WITH Nepal-women-religion-society-chhaupadi,FEATURE by Frankie Taggart Nepalese villager Chandrakal Nepali prepares her bedding inside a "chhaupadi house" in the village of Achham, some 800kms west of Kathmandu on November 23, 2011. Isolation is part of a centuries-old Hindu ritual known as chhaupadi which is blamed for prolongued depression, young women's deaths and high infant mortality rates in remote, impoverished western Nepal. Under the practice women are prohibited from participating in normal family activities during menstruation and after childbirth. AFP PHOTO/Prakash MATHEMA (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)