How do you tap into joy in your work? 
I feel very happy, and enjoy when I see women transform their lives.
This is all about everyday feminism. So, what’s one way you ‘feminist’ every day?
I’m quite concerned about women’s issues. I’m quite aware about the issues going on all around the country and all over the globe as well. I try to speak and raise my concern against the feminist values, against gender equality, I immediately raise my voice through many means of media or many means of intercourses. I’m very vocal. That’s why when a journalist, they immediately contact me because there’s some hot issues going on around the country, because I’m totally open and very vocal. Sometimes, my friend said, ‘Oh, you are in an NHRC, you shouldn’t retort against the government,’ [chuckles] and I’m totally open. That’s why everybody quite easily contacts me.
What is a win that you’d like to celebrate?
Human nature is very ambitious. 20 years back, when I look back, thinking of what I have done so far, I thought, if I have changed some laws and organised the groups, then I will be quite happy. Now, another. We are quite ambitious. Getting more and more power to the women. Still there’s a long way to go. Nowadays in my last dream, if I have been able to create a Herstory in Nepal in some other way, then I’ll be quite happy. And I’ve been telling my friends that it will be my last project.
When I ask (pressing) if there’s any one thing she’s particularly proud of, with certainty she shares, “I’m very, very proud and I feel very, very satisfied when I see the widows in the red.”
What is one thing around everyday feminism that you are grappling with or seeking answers to?
In feminist movements, there’s an individual movement and collective movement. Sometimes it’s a concern to the individual, sometimes it’s a collective issue. I’m struggling with how to take both in that way. I’ve been quite grappling with that. The individual or collective movements.
When it comes to everyday feminism, for someone who doesn’t know where to start, what would you tell them?
I keep telling my friends in my circle, you don’t go with the feminist terminology in the beginning. It sounds [elitist]. It’s a very simple thing ‘feminist’, a very basic thing you attach to your day-to-day life. First you try to make them realise by themselves what is going on in their day-to-day life. How you are discriminating while in your kitchen, how you are discriminated against while in the decision-making level in your workplace. In that way, you can educate them. Then they realise it has been attached to their daily lives, they were quite aware. Otherwise, you just go and train them with the feminist theory and values and it doesn’t work.
This Q&A is part of Everyday Feminism: The Anthology – a book spotlighting and celebrating the stories of 10 feminist activists from across the global movement, all contributing to women’s rights and gender equality in their own way.
