A panel of Nepali women activists had talked about this issue at a forum at NYU few weeks ago. Obviously, their efforts to empower the women in various ways are constantly hitting the walls protected by male chauvinism in a sad state of Nepal. What's worse, one of the panelist was married to a foreigner and bore 2 children. After she got divorced and the father decided to go back to his country and leave the kids with her, the law denied the children citizenship simply because the father was not a Nepali citizen. Khai, ke bhanne...tooooooooooo sad and helpless... ahile ta jhan...the very people who could have amended the laws -- parliamentarians -- are DISSOLVED! koslai bhanne? ke garne? I have an idea: if any of the activists are reading this....how about gathering all those hundreds of children (who the law denies citizenship to) -- should number in the hundreds, if not thousands, if they include Balis, Deukis, children of unwed mothers, children of foreign fathers, etc. -- and their mothers in front of the Narayanhiti Royal Palace and make them all cry? Maybe Shree 7 (two "shree"s added after February 1, 2005) BadaBadaMaharaj Gyanendra Bir Bir Bikram Shah Dev Dev hajur can then do something about it. Political rallies are banned, I know, but rallies demanding social changes should pass through the loop hole, making the Supremo Gyan Bahadur feel something up his *rse hole.