Photo Essays
3 MIN READ
A glimpse into the history of women's education
The tyrants of our past treated the culture of literacy and learning, reading and writing, as dangerous. For women, too, participating in progress and democracy meant in the first place being literate, having opinions, and becoming part of the world of letters.
Women’s education is an important part of feminist history, perhaps even the most important for the quiet and dramatic ways in which it transformed everyday life. To pursue education, Nepali women had to go against the common wisdom that saw girls’ education as an aberration, a waste, or even a threat to social order.
Feminist pioneers in Nepal all emphasized education as the key to overcoming women’s subjugated position in society. From the middle of the twentieth century, circumstances began to change and women started attending schools and colleges in ever-growing numbers. Teaching in schools also became the most significant route for women to begin their professional lives. This series brings together some glimpses of the past that capture the outward surge of girls and women through the life of study and learning. It also shows how schools uniquely fomented a collective experience for women.
[Feature Image: Kathmandu | 1972
Sulochana Manandhar and Astalaxmi Shakya among other students of Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Girls’ College. Started in 1961, RR Campus offered classes in the Humanities and Social Sciences only in the morning shift to accommodate women with busy domestic and professional schedules.
Sulochana Manandhar Dhital Collection/Nepal Picture Library]
These images are part of the ongoing Feminist Memory Project, which were under exhibition during Photo Kathmandu.
:::
We welcome your comments. Please write to us at letters@recordnepal.com.
Nepal Picture Library Nepal Picture Library is a digital photo archive run by photo.circle that strives to create a broad and inclusive visual archive of Nepali social and cultural history, and has collected over 70,000 photos from various sources across Nepal.
COVID19
News
3 min read
A daily summary of Covid19 related developments that matter
Books
9 min read
Many of the poems in Itisha Giri’s new collection are dedicated to women, talk about women, and diagnose how women occupy the pages but have not been allowed to occupy similar spaces in society.
Features
7 min read
One podcast hopes to provide a safe, open space for young people to talk about menstruation, consent, and sexual and reproductive health.
Perspectives
6 min read
Legal hurdles have prevented the #MeToo movement from taking off in Nepal
COVID19
News
3 min read
A daily summary of all Covid19 related developments that matter.
COVID19
News
1 min read
Due to the closed border, a migrant worker is unable to fulfill his funeral duties upon his mother’s death
Books
5 min read
Niranjan Kunwar’s memoir of life as a gay man is the honest account that Nepal’s literary sphere and LGBTIQ community have long needed
Features
5 min read
Single women who provide for their families are facing extreme difficulties surviving the lockdown