Menstrual taboo death: Nepali woman, two sons die in hut

menstrual-hut-reuters (Representative image) The hut neither had windows nor ventilation | Reuters

A 35-year-old Nepali woman and her two sons have died reportedly due to suffocation after they spent a night in a windowless hut as part of a banned practice that considers women untouchable during menstruation, according to a media report.

The incident happened in Nepal's Bajura district when Amba Bohora, who was on the fourth day of her period, on Tuesday night had dinner with her two sons aged 9 and 12 and later went to the hut to sleep with a fire near to keep the hut warm, the Kathmandu Post reported.

The hut neither had windows nor ventilation.

The next morning when Amba's mother in-law opened the door of the hut, she found all three dead. All three had died of suffocation due to a fire, the report said.

"The mother and her children may have suffocated by smoke after the blanket they were using to warm themselves caught fire while they were asleep," a senior villager was quoted as saying.

While the bodies were sent for post mortem, the Chief District Officer Chetraj Baral said a team including the district police chief was sent to the incident site to probe the matter, the paper reported.

As part of the tradition many communities in Nepal consider menstruating women impure and force female of menstruation age to stay in sheds away from the family home once a month despite the practice being banned.

In 2005, Nepal's Supreme Court banned such practices which was followed by a new law in 2017 to criminalise it.

In 2018, a 23-year-old woman in Nepal was found dead at an isolated hut where she was left alone as part of the banned practice.