What to read, watch, and listen to this Women’s Month

On a list of women-centric feminist media recommendations

and

Mar 07, 2025

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu. This is Issue 179 of KALAM Weekly, the only newsletter you need to keep updated with everything happening in Nepal.

A great, big thank you to Satish Gurung, who renewed his support for the newsletter despite issues with the payment processor. If any of you face similar issues, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Welcome to all my new free readers. I hope you will enjoy reading me every week.

In this newsletter, we have a special deep dive by Ishika Thapa, who is currently interning with Kalam. She has curated a list of women-centric media that you should definitely check out this Women’s Month.

In this newsletter:

Donald Trump heralds a new world order
Buddha Air plane lands with just one nose wheel
Taking stock of women’s rights this Women’s Month
The deep dive: What to read, watch, and listen to this Women’s Month

Donald Trump heralds a new world order

As much as I refrain from writing about international happenings, some things have such far-reaching consequences that they are difficult to ignore. Last Friday’s public spat between US President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy is one such instance. Never before have I witnessed such a poor display of diplomacy, decorum, and the basic respect afforded to a visiting head of state. Trump and Vance ganged up on the embattled Ukrainian leader like a bunch of schoolyard bullies, berating him for his hatred of Vladimir Putin and not thanking them for the aid that America had given Ukraine. On the first point, why wouldn’t Zelenskyy hate Putin? The Russian President was the one who invaded Ukraine, killing thousands of Ukrainians and destroying large swathes of the country. On the second point, Zelenskyy had thanked the US multiple times, even at the beginning of the meeting.

But let’s not get into the substance of the argument. Many have already analyzed that to death. Let’s talk instead about what this portends for the world and Nepal. The US is now allied with Russia. That much is clear. Trump and Vance are repeating Russian talking points, calling Zelenskyy a dictator and alleging that he and other Ukrainian elites have gotten rich off of US aid. The US has already sided with Russia in a UN vote and is looking to further embolden Russia by considering withdrawing from NATO and the UN. Later in the week, Trump suspended all funding to Ukraine and slapped tariffs on allies like Canada and frenemies like China. The Chinese Embassy in the US responded very strongly to the tariffs, writing on Twitter, “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.”

We are in unchartered waters here. Under Trump, the US is becoming increasingly isolationist while, at the same time, much more aggressive. It is abandoning its responsibilities as the world’s superpower, the “leader of the free world,” the ostensible champion of democracy, human rights, and free markets. The only other world power that shares the same ideals is the European Union, and it does not seem nearly as prepared for the role that it will now have to take on the world stage. The only country that is prepared and willing to take up the mantle of the world’s premier superpower is China. It appears that, once again, the mandate of heaven has been thrust upon the Middle Kingdom.

How can countries like Nepal navigate this new world order? We used to share certain values with the US — democracy, rule of law, human rights, minority protections, etc. I’m not sure the Trump administration believes in any of that anymore, certainly not protections for minorities. The US retreating from these values means that their opposites will be emboldened. Autocratic right-wing leaders will find friends in the US, which is certain to impact countries like ours. Already, we are seeing a newly resurgent monarchy movement calling for a regression back to the days of the Hindu kingdom. Trump’s isolationism also means major cuts to foreign aid, which Nepal depends heavily upon for its federal budget. Unless the EU, China, or India can step up their aid, crucial health, social, and other programs will suffer.

That’s all I will say for now, but this is a topic I will be revisiting as Trump unveils more of his vision for the US and the world. Yeats’ Second Coming feels more and more apt for the times we are living in and not just the famous lines “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” Rather, I would cite the ending: “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

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Buddha Air plane lands with just one nose wheel

On Thursday, March 7, a Buddha Air flight from Janakpur to Kathmandu landed safely despite missing one nose wheel. Planes generally have two wheels on the nose, so a safe landing was made, but this begs the question: What happened to the pre-flight check? A simple walkaround check of the plane would’ve shown that it was missing a wheel, but it doesn’t seem like the technical crew even conducted this basic but mandatory procedure. The missing wheel was later found back in Janakpur.

The plane has reportedly been grounded for inspection but I fail to see how the plane is at fault here. A missing wheel is not a technical issue; it’s human error. Someone removed the wheel while it was in Janakpur, perhaps for testing or maintenance, and did not put it back. And none of the technical crew noticed. This is gross negligence, and instead of the plane, it should be Buddha Air’s ground crew in Janakpur that needs to be scrutinized. Thankfully, the aircraft landed safely this time around, but there’s no telling what might happen if such oversights continue, risking the lives of dozens of passengers. Incidents like these only support the European Commission’s continued ban on Nepali airlines. If airlines cannot ensure basic safety checks, they deserve to be on the ban list. And Buddha Air is supposed to be one of the more responsible and safer airlines.

Taking stock of women’s rights during Women’s Month

March is Women’s Month, with March 8 as International Women’s Day. It is the time of the month when politicians pay lip service to women while doing nothing to advance their rights. Instead, they are actively working to scuttle inclusion provisions, finding new and ingenious ways to circumvent the reservations the constitution has provided to women. Nepali women remain second-class citizens, unable to pass citizenship to their children without condition. Discrimination, harassment, and abuse often characterize women’s experiences in the home and the workplace. Celebrations, whether in person or on social media, invite jeering, moralistic commentary from men who prescribe women with a virginal, deity-like identity. Women's lives continue to be circumscribed by tradition, expectation, and paternalism. Despite the progress made, an equal and equitable world remains distant.

All is not doom and gloom, though. Nepal has made progress, even though much remains to be done. This newsletter, Ishika Thapa pays tribute to the history of feminist movements through a list of articles and books to read, films to watch, and music to listen to, all centered around the female experience. Read on below.

The deep dive: What to read, watch, and listen to this Women’s Month

by Ishika Thapa

Schoolgirls look at pictures from the 2018 Feminist Memory Project exhibition held in Patan. (Image: Nepal Picture Library)

“I’ll tell you what freedom is to me. No Fear.” - Nina Simone

Happy Women’s Month to everyone reading this newsletter.

‘Nari Diwas’ would be incomplete without remembering Yogmaya Neupane, Nepal’s first revolutionary feminist. Yogmaya was a poet, activist, and pioneer of women's rights. In the early 20th century, she started out writing about the injustices faced by women, and eventually, in 1918, formed a ‘Women’s Committee’ to protest evils like the sati system and child marriage while demanding rights for widowed women to remarry. She was against the Rana regime, the caste system, and gender inequality. Her followers marched to Singha Durbar in Kathmandu, demanding an end to injustices such as forced labor, excessive taxation, and societal discrimination against women. Her rebellion did not end there. Yogmaya and 68 of her followers committed mass suicide by performing jal samadhi (immersion in water). It was her final statement — she would rather die than live in slavery.

Yogmaya’s story remained concealed for decades, hidden by the Rana oligarchs and successive Shah governments. It was only after the dawn of democracy that she was recognized as one of Nepal’s first feminists. Today, we remember Yogmaya and build on the legacy she left behind.

From Yogmaya to Rebanti Kumari Acharya to Mangala Devi Singh, so many women have paved the way for us to be here. We have come a long way, acquiring voting rights, property rights, the right to work, and reservations to help us access governance and power. But despite all these rights, women are still treated as second-class citizens, barred from passing citizenship to their children without condition. Domestic violence, harassment, abuse, and rapes continue.

But, we have come a long way, and I’d like to take this moment to thank all the activists, leaders, and ordinary women who made it possible for me to enjoy the rights and privileges I do today. I am the first woman in my family to complete college, get a job in a formal workspace, and negotiate my curfew time.

Today, for Women’s Month, I have curated a list of literature, films, and music that speak to the lived experience of being a woman in a patriarchal world. Hopefully, they will provide a broader perspective on women so that we can all work towards creating a better world for us.

Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival by Saba Mahmood

I cannot talk about feminism without talking about this paper by Saba Mahmood, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Reading this altered — or rather extended — my perspective on feminism and agency. In the paper, Mahmood critiques mainstream feminist discourse for failing to account for women's experiences in non-Western contexts. She uses the Islamic revival movement in Egypt as a case in point. We must engage, understand, and interrogate the lives of women whose desires and self-hood have been shaped by non-liberal traditions. In such contexts, resistance looks different.

Mainstream feminist literature sees resistance as a manner of negotiating agency within the structure of patriarchy. But, Mahmood challenges this linear liberal perspective, suggesting that it overlooks how different cultural, religious, and social contexts shape women’s expressions of freedom and agency. She shows us a more complex and embodied understanding of agency where religious women can exercise power and subjectivity in ways that are meaningful to them, such as wearing a veil or praying, which are often seen as oppressive by Western feminism. These embodied practices aren't about being subjugated to the system but instead, cultivating agency through discipline of the self. Agency does not necessarily have to come through active resistance and protest but can also be negotiated through endurance, suffering, and persistence. Women’s agency thus can be a reconceptualization of power rather than just emancipation. Mahmood urges us to think of agency “not as a synonym for resistance to relations of domination, but as a capacity for action that historically specific relations of subordination enable and create.”

This paper is essential for anyone who wishes to understand feminist theory beyond a white, Western lens.

More theory recommendations:

Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks
Legalizing State Patriarchy in Nepal by Sierra Tamang
Centering Women In Nepal’s Economy and Society: The Collected Works of Meena Acharya
Voice of Protest in Nepali Poetry by Women by Indira Acharya Mishra

The Public Life of Women: A Feminist Memory Project

Virginia Woolf writes in A Room of One’s Own, “For most of history, anonymous was a woman.” The Public Life of Women seeks to combat this historical anonymity by highlighting the often overlooked contributions of women to Nepali society and polity.

Nepali history is largely a history of Nepali men. Women are either missing completely or are relegated to the background. This book, curated by Diwas Raja Kc and NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, filled with writing, photographs, poetry, and images, for once, centers the experience(s) of women.

One particular section featuring lyrics to Teej songs never fails to make me cry. These songs are expressions of women looking for space beyond their married lives. Teej, a Hindu festival where married women fast for their husbands’ long lives, has recently been redefined into a day where women gather to celebrate, free from the controlling gazes of their husbands, fathers, fathers-in-law, brothers, and even sons. Teej serves a social function, allowing women to celebrate femininity and womanhood beyond their prescribed roles as mothers, wives, and daughters.

The book engages with fundamental questions around public memory and the making of feminist histories. We see these stories of women in homes, offices, politics, outdoors, colleges, and travel — and we recognize them. We are taken through the course of women's lives across generations in this record of the diversity of the Nepali feminist experience. It is a testament to the rich lives women have led- despite their exclusion and subjugation by the patriarchy. This book is for anyone interested in the lives and stories of Nepali women.

Invisible Women: Data Bias In Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

The world we live in is molded in a male image. Health, public transport, public spaces, and everything else cater to men, as there is almost no data on women. This book is a wake-up call on how the world we live in does not cater to us. Women’s needs are deliberately disregarded because of the gap in data on women’s experiences. The lack of female-specific data perpetuates misconceptions about women’s bodies, needs, and views.

Perez shows how even simple things like the default setting on air conditioners are based on men’s metabolic rates, leading women to feel colder in professional settings like offices. Or how women suffer more sexual violence when there aren’t separate bathrooms. Or how doctors often misdiagnose women because standard symptoms are based on men’s experiences when women can display very different symptoms. Women are more likely to die from a car crash because the crash test dummies are built on the average 70 kg male body. The failure to invest in girls' sports contributes to poorer mental health. Even natural disasters affect women more.

Perez writes, “There is no such thing as a woman who doesn't work; there is only a woman who isn't paid for her work.” Globally, 75% of unpaid work is done by women. Most unpaid labor, like child care, is not even counted in economic measurements like GDP. Without proper data on unpaid labor, states overlook the economic value women create outside formal workspaces. This fails to bring in the necessary support systems to acknowledge or compensate for this contribution.

Nepal has quotas for women’s representation, but those spaces are often captured by elites or used by men to reward their kith and kin. If there are not enough women in leadership, government, policy, business, and decision-making, we’re likely to die sooner because we won’t be cared for or considered. Changes can be small, so if you’re a male boss reading this, I urge you to do something as simple as placing sanitary napkins in your offices.

More book recommendations:

Shirish ko Ful by Parijat
Jiwan Kada Ki Ful by Jhamak Ghimire
Dulari by Muna Chaudhary
Aasu Ko Shakti by Sunita Danuwar
Nathiya by Saraswati Partikshya

Mahanagar (1963) by Satyajit Ray

Mahanagar (The Big City) is one of my favorites from Satyajit Ray’s unique filmography. It’s a cinematic masterpiece, a classic, that delves into the life of a working woman in industrial Calcutta, an ode to the invincible spirit of a woman. Arati (played by Madhabi Mukherjee) rediscovers herself after she starts working. Scenes like applying lipstick for the first time, wearing a sheer blouse, and signing her contract provide small moments of rebellion and agency for a housewife who has dared take the unconventional step of getting a job as a saleswoman in 50s Calcutta. Ray does not glorify Arati’s working life; choosing to just provide a glimpse of a woman taking risks and making her own way despite the odds.

More women are now in the workforce but professional life is still fraught with challenges for women. Harassment in the workplace, condescension from co-workers, and the expectation to take care of the home while also working all continue to characterize women’s professional lives. In Mahanagar, Arati works, but her domestic reality stays the same. But whether it's the complexity of companionship, the realities of a caregiving mother, wife, and daughter-in-law who is also a working woman, or the changing world of home and the outside, this film lets us see it all.

It is arguable whether Mahanagar is a feminist film because we see Arati through Satyajit Ray's male lens. But this five-decade-old film still captures the reality of women, which is why I think it's necessary to watch this masterpiece. The film shows that behind every successful woman is her guilt of missing out on motherly duties, chores at home, and a jealous husband.

Cleo from 5-7 (1962) by Agnes Varda

Cleo from 5 to 7 follows a woman named Cleo from 5 to 7 pm, unfolding in near real-time. French filmmaker Agnes Varda’s magnum opus has been the subject of reverence to many. In the film, an up-and-coming pop singer named Cleo (played by Corinne Marchand) awaits a cancer diagnosis. Cleo becomes acutely aware of her life with each passing second, fearing her moment of truth.

The film’s strength lies in Varda’s ability to reveal the complexity of a woman’s character. It simultaneously explores how a woman's identity has been reduced to her physical appearance, making her an objective character in everybody's world. Who is a woman if not consumed by her self-image? Varda offers a deep reflection on women's experiences, reflecting on those who are never fully seen yet exist under the gaze of others while struggling to claim their own existence.

Another reason why this film is important is because Varda is often overlooked when considering the greats of French cinema. The French New Wave of the 60s made stars out of male directors like Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and Eric Rohmer. Despite the experimental and highly personal nature of many of her films, Agnes Varda did not achieve the same fame or popularity. In contrast to the “male gaze” of directors like Godard and Truffaut, Varda brought a woman's perspective to cinema, showing how complex and interesting female characters could be. Cleo from 5 to 7 was way ahead of its time, showing us what a “female gaze” looks like.

More Films:

A playlist for a musical march

Happy Women's Month!