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Anju
Chhetri, among the 1000 Women Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.
She
has been an energetic campaigner for women's human
rights through the Asmita Women's Publishing House (AWPH), which she
helped round. Through AWPH, the foremost feminist organization in Nepal,
and her writings in the mainstream media, Anju has been a pioneer in
raising nascent feminist issues in Nepal. |
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Anju
Cheri and her friends launched a women's magazine, Asmita, in 1988 and set
up a feminist media outlet, when nobody was writing about women's issues
in the Nepali media. Scholars, intellectuals, and policymakers had no
access to women's thoughts, concerns, and ideas. As editor, Anju
identified issues, and researched and wrote through-provoking articles
even in the mainstream newspapers and magazines. Equal property rights for
women, the right to abortion, sexuality, violence against women, and
women's right to health are among the issues that have been brought to the
forefront of Nepali life. Their efforts led to
a national civil code that replaced archaic laws prohibiting women
ancestral property and the right to abortion.
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Always
prolific, Anju has also been writing about political affairs, high
corruption, government policies, development projects,
the Moist people's war, ceasefires, and peace talks. From August
2001 to September 2003, she wrote 86 pieces for her weekly column in
Kantipur, the country's largest daily.
Nepal
is not journalist friendly, when Asmita was launched, the autocratic
Panchayat (village council) system was in force and the mass media were
largely state controlled. Anju and her colleagues were spared scrutiny
because a women's magazine was considered relatively harmless. They used
the opportunity to espouse democracy, and women's inarguable role in
regaining their basic rights. While using the media to promote the cause
of women's rights, Anju does not demur from also using it to criticize the
women's movement and make it accountable to the public.
Source
: 1000 Peace Women Across the Globe
For
more details log on to www.1000peacewomen.org |
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