What’s Current: Nepal criminalizes exiling women and girls to menstrual huts

Image: NPR/Shiva Raj Dhungana

Nepal has passed a law criminalizing the practice of banishing girls and women to dangerous menstrual huts. Two teenage girls have died in these huts in the past year:

“The monthly exile, during which menstruating women and those who have just given birth are denied milk and given less to eat, leaves them at risk of rape and vulnerable to attacks by wild animals and extreme cold”

Yesterday, Taylor Swift testified against radio host David Mueller in a civil sexual assault trial. Mueller sued Swift for three million dollars, claiming that her “false allegations” of sexual assault in 2013 got him fired. Swift countersued for the sexual assault itself, asking to be awarded one dollar if the court finds in her favour.

British Columbia’s Supreme Court has upheld the right of the transit authority to refuse to feature anti-abortion ads featuring images of foetuses and the slogan “Abortion Kills Children,” on buses.

The Ontario Court of appeal has thrown out another guilty verdict in a sexual assault case due to a lack of corroboration and an “overemphasis on believing the victim.” The convictions were for historical sexual assaults that occurred when the victim was five years old.

Brandon Blackmore abd his ex-wife, Gail Blackmore, have been sentenced to jail fortaking a 13-year-old girl to the United States to marry the leader of their religious sect.

Lisa Steacy

Lisa Steacy is an Assistant Editor at Feminist Current. She has a B.A. in Women & Gender Studies from the University of Toronto. However, the women she met in her five years as a frontline worker and collective member with Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter deserve almost all of the credit for her feminist education. She lives in Vancouver with her partner and their cats.