By #Metoo movement in Nepalese society is a new term. But back from the days when it started, till date, its impact has been fragile. We have noticed the victims being scrutinized than being fully supported. People backlash the victim for speaking up later, while the victim should have been supported to have come out bravely. Due to this blaming game, victims still get afraid to come up front and share the evil truth of their pain.
Even in the recent case(victim who spoke up via her social media), people accused her for not coming up within the last eight years. She is questioned of her own behavior, her intention and her past relationships and events. There’s still a group of people who always try to find a problem in the victim rather than acknowledging and cheering for her a bold step. To understand why this term boomed again, we have to understand the history of this movement
History of #MeToo Movement
#MeToo Movement has helped hundreds of women worldwide to share their stories of abuse and unjust faced by them. It is a mass movement of women to prove the sexual abuse survivors that they are not alone. This movement which brought many positive changes for the sexual abuse survivors throughout the world was first started by a social activist; Tarana Burke in 2006 A.D. as a movement which assured victims that they were not alone and many people have gone through it and have been in the healing period.
This movement made victims believe that they were heard and seen. This terminology was first used in social media platform MySpaces and since then it has evoked a global revolution. Ro’ee Levy and Martin Mattsson, doctoral candidates in Yale’s economics department, had even published a working paper showing that #MeToo caused a 7% increase in sex-crimes reporting in the United States from October to December 2017, the first three months after the movement launched on social media.
This increase accounted for the reporting of about 4,600 additional crimes and was spread evenly across racial and socioeconomic groups. This research also focused on the number of sex-crime reporting done in the first three months and it was found out that there was 14% increase in sex-crime reporting. It puts a positive light to the fact that #MeToo movement has been very efficient to bring out the perpetrators and save many victims.
#MeToo movement in Nepal
In Nepal, #MeToo movement took off in 2018 A.D. Victims of all age group and varied socio-economic background reached different platforms to share their stories and felt heard. Though it could not reach a full-fledge movement like in the West, it definitely brought a confidence among the survivors that they might be heard and believed in the slowly progressing Nepalese society.
In a country like Nepal where Sex and Sexual issues are still a taboo, it is very difficult for people to share their torturous experiences. Some victims are left numb because of their personal or business relationship. Culprits are found to force those victimized women from coming out.
People tend to forget that it requires tremendous amount of courage and mental strength to be able to share with the world, the atrocity they have faced. It’s not an easy thing because what you have gone through will be scrutinized, judged, talked-upon and shredded to pieces. Opening up in public comes with a very difficult understanding for the victim that their tragic story has now become a topic of discussion in public forums and they will have to keep reliving that traumatizing experience multiple of times because of many people discussing about it.
#Metoo movement is a form of slight relief for the trauma faced by the victims because it gives a form of empathy to the victims, that there are other survivors who are thriving well in life and so can they and assures them that somewhere someone is hearing them out seriously with an intention to help. It is a high time that Nepalese society revolts against the predators with #MeToo movement because this movement can act as a voice to the voiceless.
Recently a positive change and a sign for a movement is noticed in Nepalese society when a survivor Ms. Rejina posted on her Facebook page about her survival story and how she was raped multiple times by her own school principal seven years back when she was staying at the school hostel.
Incidents like this keep reality in check because it reflects where our humanity is heading towards. With hundreds of victims coming forward, need for change will be pressurized. Those victims who want to be heard but are still struggling alone will get a boost of confidence, if they see victims around them being upfront and gaining support from the public about it. Unfortunately, #MeToo movement does not solidify that victim will surely get justice but it still puts light on issues that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.
This movement also consoles the victim that it was never their fault that they got assaulted, it is only the fault of the predator. #MeToo movement highlights the importance of consent. It is very important for people to know that no means no. This revolution can lead us to the society free of sexual misconduct. A person is not a victim for sharing their story. They are a survivor for setting the world on fire with the truth. Sometimes, someone might be really be in the need of that light to spark themselves and shed light on evil darkness.
The victims get reenergized to fight when they see themselves in others shared stories. This movement gives permission to tell stories and legitimize the stories of victim. This hashtag is not just a catchphrase but a very strong encouragement for victims to speak because it is not them who should be silent, it is the culprits who should be living a miserable life. If all the people who have been sexually harassed starts writing #MeToo in their status then we would know the magnitude of the situation.
Each time a victim stands up for themselves, they stand for every abuse survivor. This enables a return to the mass-mobilization of grassroots force. So, it is very important to turn this movement to a revolt. #MeToo acts like an equalizer for a shared platform. It does not mean that one needs to have same status or experience.
This term welcomes all form of collective narrative for a change. It eradicates the elitism and elevates the commonality of sexual harassment, exploitation, misconduct, assault and abuse. #MeToo movement calls for introspection and re-evaluation of strategies in the larger trajectory of feminist movement in Nepal.
This movement is a step towards change. As the victims have started to come out via various social media, the movement is getting stronger. It is slowly pushing the policy makers to amend new and strict laws viable to the victims’ support.
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