CONVICTIONS

“The real criminal is behind the curtain.” [1]

How would you feel…

If after months of physical and emotional abuse you were thrown in prison for defending yourself? link

If you were in prison for having a physical or a mental disability? [2]

If you didn’t know what you were in prison for? [3][4]

If you were in prison for trying to save the life of your loved one? link

If you couldn’t even speak the language of your fellow inmates or guards? link

Outrage, sadness and hopelessness took over our bodies story by story. The words “we are innocent” and “we are not the crime” echoed in our heads. [5] We were told not to lose the ability to feel, not to lose our outrage, but to also not let it paralyze us. [6] At times, paralysis was seemingly unavoidable as we couldn’t find words to give any justice to the circumstances that these women were placed in.

Many of the women in prison are survivors of sexual assault, physical abuse and psychological trauma while their abusers freely continue on with their lives. Women with miscarriages are wrongly accused of “illegal abortion” and are thrown into prison while still coping with their trauma of losing a child. [7] In cases of drug trafficking, women often get involved because their husbands coerce them to work as porters. [8] In places where poverty dominates the lives of people, participating in smuggling becomes seemingly the only option. [9]

convictions: Project

[1] Anonymous (NGO staff), April 11, 2019.
[2] The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal). Prison and the Rights of Detainees: A Photo Exhibition on Prison Conditions in Nepal. Kathmandu, 2008. http://nepal.ohchr.org/en/resources/publications/PrisonDayBrochure_Eng.pdf. p.14.
“Despite the Supreme Court mandamus order to Government authorities on 16 October 2008 to hospitalise mentally disabled detainees and ensure they receive proper treatment, no corrective action was taken as of 26 November 2008.”
[3] Many women are kept in prison while their husbands are investigated for drug and human trafficking.
[4] Guth, p.7.
“In Nepal, according to multiple written and oral sources, nearly 60% of prisoners are detainees.”
[5] Nearly every female prisoner we interviewed said these words when asked what they wished people knew about them.
[6] Nazneen Zafar, April 28, 2019.
[7] United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). “Handbook on Women and Imprisonment,” United Nations (2014).
[8] Ranju Pandey (SETU Nepal), April 23, 2019.
[9] Indira Ranamagar, April 25, 2019.

convictions: Text