AFP :
Nepalis on Thursday protested against proposed new travel rules that could force young women to require permission from their family for travelling in some circumstances, calling them an attack on fundamental rights.
The government says the regulation is to prevent human trafficking, but demonstrators gathered outside Nepal’s immigration department argued the government should be looking at other measures, not hampering women’s mobility.
“I am here as a Nepali woman. It is shameful that in this century we have to stand here and demand rights,” a 19-year-old student at the protest, Abhishu Karki, told AFP.
The director of the department, Tek Narayan Poudel, sought to calm the crowd, telling them: “There has not been a decision yet… When we now discuss it in the Home Ministry, we will make efforts to not endorse it because it is against human rights.”
Nepalis on Thursday protested against proposed new travel rules that could force young women to require permission from their family for travelling in some circumstances, calling them an attack on fundamental rights.
The government says the regulation is to prevent human trafficking, but demonstrators gathered outside Nepal’s immigration department argued the government should be looking at other measures, not hampering women’s mobility.
“I am here as a Nepali woman. It is shameful that in this century we have to stand here and demand rights,” a 19-year-old student at the protest, Abhishu Karki, told AFP.
The director of the department, Tek Narayan Poudel, sought to calm the crowd, telling them: “There has not been a decision yet… When we now discuss it in the Home Ministry, we will make efforts to not endorse it because it is against human rights.”
