Kathmandu, especially in early winter, is lovely for walking. Comparatively a smaller city, it is even possible to walk short distance destinations, which I have done more than I would like to honestly admit. I can unabashedly say that I have started to dread the oncoming summers even more than I usually do.

Changing realities

It is not my first winter in Kathmandu. Although back after a few years of education away, I feel a distinct difference and I truly enjoy my city. As I was speaking with a friend a few days ago, we both had the sudden realisation that there has in fact been a distinct change and a complete overhaul in the way we, particularly women, can now roam and truly enjoy the streets of Kathmandu, in comparison to how it was a few years ago. As a schoolgirl, I remember quite clearly how my daily ritual of walking back and forth the distance between my home in Anamnagar to my school in Maitidevi was marred with eve-teasers. These people were neither dangerous goons nor scary people. They were mostly young boys not older than me, and yes, they felt completely comfortable teasing me in broad daylight on the streets.

It happened at least once or twice a day and the situation was similar for my other female friends. Sometimes it was just hooting, whistling but other times, it was verbal taunts. It was the early 2000s, when the country was waking up to the term ‘eve-teasing’. Soon, I transitioned to my Plus Two life, but situation was no different. I accepted the teasing as a normal, usual part of my everyday life.

So I am grateful at how the situation is today. I do not even remember a single incident where I have been eve-teased in recent memory. It is difficult to exactly pin-point the reasons that must have given birth to this remarkable change. Maybe it is an unexpected but welcome change due to increased security in the Capital during the decade-long conflict, increased public awareness, or even a situation that points towards the grim reality of harassment and gender crimes being relegated to darker and closer quarters.

However, Nepal still does not have any legislation for sexual harassment in public spaces nor any legislation for harassment in employment, service, or education. There is, however, a bill on workplace harassment pending at Parliament.

Reiterating feminism

Female security and female concerns are often broadly categorised and bundled up into one larger term, feminism, which, as a movement, is still in its infancy in Nepal. I have always felt that feminism suffers and is plagued by its own entity. Feminism concerns and should concern everyone. A recent dialogue on feminism concerns how the rejection of feminism has negative repercussions for all genders. I want to go a step ahead and state that perhaps feminism is a confusing term, making it seem closely committed and fanatic to the female identity. Instead, we can aim towards a major shift in understanding and see feminism as a benign seed that attempts to encompass equality for everyone; after all, it stands as a symbolic identity for equality, and equality encompasses all.

There are different kinds of feminists for whom feminism means different things. Personally, I believe in the simplistic definition, where feminism means equality for females, at par with all genders, and beyond this, the concern that women do not really get to enjoy freedom and equality and hence, are limited.

I have asked a few male friends, who clearly feel and sympathise with contemporary women’s issues of safety, freedom, and equality, about whether they identify themselves as feminists. Their obvious surprise at the question seemed to convey that perhaps they expected the term to apply only to females. We need to be clear that feminism does not reject or undermine other genders. This calls for a shift in the popular mind-set.

Interestingly, recently there was a worldwide phenomenon on Twitter that went under the hashtag #WomenAgainst Feminism. I was appalled when I read a few such tweets, because they too operated under the basic assumption that feminism meant ‘death-to-the-males’. It is important to reiterate, even after decades of global feminist activism, that feminism does not decry men. It does not translate to a hatred of men or other genders. Nor does it put women on a pedestal to be worshipped. Quite the opposite, in fact. It puts males, females, and all other genders on the same platform and aims for equality for all.

All genders are different with unique attributes, physically at least, but this does not warrant differing treatment or limited access to opportunities in life.

Dahal is a communications professional who works with Dayitwa Nepal