Half knowledge is worse than ignorance

- Thomas B. Macaulay

 Agree with khoikkhoik, must say that she did a lot of reading in a week but she has just portrayed what she thinks about the book, no interview, no sources, she at least should have asked with few women about what they think about all those things in Swasthani.

no interview, no sources
-> what kind of sources are you looking for? can you please elaborate?
I think it'd be little harder for traditional women to speak up with the fear of backsaying from in-laws and neighbors.

 There should be few letters to editor in reference to this on tomorrow's edition.

I have a question to khoikhoik:
can you please enlighten us with the full knowledge of yours by counter-arguing what she wrote?

 what does the writer trying to do by calling to rewrite the whole story over again? This not a bollywood movie script that one can remake for it's own sake.  if we agree to the writer, then we must rewrite or deny ramayan or mahabharat where role of woman are degraded or defamed in some or other way. better would be if she change her religion.

 danphe, I guess you don't deny that woman were degraded in these religious texts. I agree that it won't be easy to change these stories and perhaps these stories might have to do with the poor state of women in Nepal.

कथा हावादरी रे ??? तेसो त सबै धर्मिकग्रन्थ, भगवान, भुत प्रेत आदी इत्यदि हावादरी लाग्छन । लेखिका म्होदय नस्तिक हो भने मेरो भन्नु केही छैन तर होइन भने धार्मिक छला ओढेर "हावादरी" को डम्फु बजाउदै क्रान्तिकारी बन्न खोज्नु अली सुहाएन । 

 Dear arahat, 
no interview means in journalism, unless it's not published in a opinion or editorial section, one should always mention at least two or more than two voices of public. So in this case, the writes just wrote her own opinion, did she even asked any other woman about what they think about the things written in Swasthani. I don't know on which section this article was published but unless it was not in one of those section that i mentioned than i am not satisfied with her opinion. 
no sources means does anybody even know who wrote the Swasthani Katha, i don't think we have any specific details about who was the original author of the story, So who should re-wrote the Swasthani again. Do you think brahmin or Chhetri, Newar or Kirat, Since everybody follow the Swasthani so everybody would like to have that opportunity due to which there will another civil war in our country. 

jadau
bd 

यी लेखिका निर्मला शर्मा ले अघिलो साल मा  बर्त बसेको फल प्राप्त नभएको ले मात्र यी कुरा आएको हुन।

 It is published on opinion section of today's kantipur. 
epaper.ekantipur.com/epaperhome.aspx

It doesn't seem to be practical to rewrite the story. I hope that she's not a maoist and have hidden communist agendas. 

NGOism ko kamal ho sathi. Maila ko samman hindu dharma gariyeko kura inle bujin. Pati wa Purush ko birodh garera maile adhikarbadi bhaincha ho? ho bhane bihe kina gareko Nirmala?

 This is what happens when someone tries to judge old scripture by today's standard. Swasthani reflects what it used to be several hundreds, if not thousands, years ago. To say this degrades women is to profess one's own ignorance how history is shaped. Tomorrow, someone can say same about the writer after seeing her photo (with long hair and top, which squarely puts her in women category).

She opposes the characteristics of 'ramri mahila' . According to her, after reading what ramri mahila is like, naramri mahila needs to feel inferior. Wow. Now that means no one should talk about ramro (student, women, athelete etc etc), because it makes naramro people feel bad. In fact, according to her, one should not even try to define 'ramro'.

 Pire, the text is not only the part of history but some of it are even being followed blindly today. As you mentioned it as a reflection of history, rewriting the history won't make it right. But perhaps we can do something today so that these things don't get repeated. But unfortunately, it is still being practiced today in the modern Nepal.

@ Pire
"This is what happens when someone tries to judge old scripture by today's standard"


Eventually, u agreed ! This is what I wanted to hear from you in our last discussion.

 Nalapani bro,

Did we have discussion before? On this topic?

Arahat, 

"But perhaps we can do something today so that these things don't get repeated. But unfortunately, it is still being practiced today in the modern Nepal."

What is still practiced? 7 years old girls still marry 70 years old men? Elephant still make king? In fact, very few things from that books are still practiced. The country has moved forward, 20%+ MPs are women, constitutionally women are also given property rights, so on. Things may  not be perfect, they are in the right direction. I would like them to be pushed further in the right direction, but I don't like this NGO inspired attitude of opposing everything our culture has. This woman actually asks that the book be rewritten. This is similar to what happened in China during the cultural revolution. man nalageko kuro wipe out garne, rewrite garne bhanne..

The issue is women rights, not swasthani. It is just a cultural relic that should be left at its own. How come every time we have festival there are these weirdos coming out to oppose it? In Dashai too, there are weirdos who think , tika laune chalan le aksheta waste bhayo, etc etc'

सबै धार्मिक पुस्तक हरुको आफ्नो किसिम ले व्याख्या गरेको हुन्छ - चाहे त्यो बाइबल होस् या कुरान होस् स्वस्थानी होस् । पढ्न मन नलागे नपढे भाईहाल्यो । आन्दोलन नै गर्नु पर्ने त देखिदैन । आफ्नो आस्था को कुरा हो। फेरी माथि भनिये जस्तो यो हिन्दी फिल्म को स्क्र्पित पनि हैन। 
 

she sounds like a mahila adhikar ko thekedar !!! yesta thekedar haru le garda ta desh ko halat patla bhako chh ni. sabailai neta nai bannu parne !!

Pire, as you selectively wrote what is not practiced, I am not rewriting what is still being practiced. As you would like to push it in the right direction, understanding and debating what is wrong in these text could be one of the steps. I won't brand her as NGO inspired or weirdos without knowing her background. I think the women's situation in Nepal is very much connected to the cultures and faith we carry.

I think many of us still believe blindly on these text (obviously not the ones you wrote), that's why we still listen to it meditatively.

I strongly despise animal sacrifice during dashain.

what do you expect from an ancient story?? egyptian stories are similar ...ancient greek stories tell many such "impossible" stuff...these people relish hearing all these stories but rant  stories  that they are hearing from their childhood...  

 
 

 Arahat,

I am surprised by what you wrote. So, you obviously think that if a person writes 90% of correct stuffs, and 10% of wrong stuffs, we have to focus on 90% of correct stuffs. But in reality, a man has to write 100% correct stuff. Even if someone is inserting 1% of her biased stuff among the correct stuffs, he is a fake person, and his dishonesty has to be denounced.

Another thing is, to make statements like " I think the women's situation in Nepal is very much connected to the cultures and faith we carry." is easy. In fact, it is obvious. But it has nothing to do with Swasthani per se. In our own culture, brothers have to 'dhog' their sister, parents give money to their young daughter but not to young brother in religious ceremonies and several girls are often considered deviko awavatar. We can't pick things selectively to denounce our heritage.

This woman has plainly written that "Swasthani needs to be rewritten" . Go and read this article. What do you mean by rewritten? Then she goes on to say why this thing is unscientific or that thing is unscientific. Find me a culture that doesn't have unscientific, unbelievable things written in their scripture of those era. This doesn't mean we have to erase or rewrite those things.

bekar ko bahas.