This posting is part of our Write-a-Thon Cases Series. For more information visit www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/
©AI
Threatened with rape, death, and kidnapping, Rita Mahato has courageously continued her work to stop violence against women in Nepal. A health counselor at the Women’s Rehabilitation Center (WOREC) in Bastipur Village Development Committee, Mahato has been repeatedly harassed by men from the village who tell her that an uneducated woman should not be doing a man’s job and that men can suppress women.
Mahato has been an adviser to women who have suffered from violence and ensures that their cases are reported and filed, as they often have not been by the local police. In June 2007, dozens of men came to WOREC to threaten its staff and force them to evacuate the village within five days. Later that month, villagers threw bricks at the building and then at the workers when they came out to protest.