Nepal
Nagma Mali
On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2020, Nepali readers get a gift; Junkiri: A feminist Library. On Thursday, four days before the Women’s Day, some feminist activists inaugurated the library in Kathmandu. Junkiri is a feminist library initiated by Voices of Women Media. It will be the first of its kind in Nepal: a permanent space dedicated specifically to feminist and women-centered literature and ideas. It will be an important gathering place and source of information, contributing to the cultivation and strengthening of the feminist consciousness in Nepal.
As per the name Junkiri, it means firefly in Nepali.
The Junkiri emerged in the midst of all forms of violence against women. The idea to start a library emerged as an act of need to address various aspects of feminism. Nepal is going through a tough time and day-after-day the patriarchal Nepali society is getting tougher socially and constitutionally. Violence against women, rape and murder, torture, Chhaupdai issues, taboo imposed upon women, restrictions on girls’ rights, social misconduct on LGBTIQ communities were becoming more prominent. Although there were demonstrations, media hype and talks about these issues, it seems to fizzle out quickly. We saw the need for continuous discourses in this area and thought of creating this permanent space.
We started to ask for books related to women, books written by women, for women. We started collecting books written by feminist writers. We started campaigning on social Media from November 2019 and our team went out to collect books and donations. Now we’ve almost 500 books. We have a few national daily newspapers and weekly magazines. All this wouldn’t have been possible if there weren’t helpful hearts. We got books from in and outside of the country.
It was more like a ‘need’ than our dream. We knew that this would be a definite milestone for everyone including rights activists to academicians. It would work as a hub where people dreaming about equal and equitable society will come together to make it happen. Having said that, we did face some challenges.
First of all, collecting books on feminism is a rare find. So it was almost impossible for us to buy it from the market. Like our society, literature, and academia are also dominated by men. So, books written by women are very few and books written by women for women are fewer than that. Another challenge we are facing is to convince people to donate books. People would not want to easily give away the books they love. Also knowing the fact that those books would be hard to find in the market.
Buying books is expensive these days. And on top of that, the recent government’s move on taxing imported books has shrunk the market. The government imposed a ten percent extra tax on imported books. Reluctant vendors are not importing books, they said that there is a flaw in the government’s decision. According to them, they buy books on South Asian prices, which is far less than the real price, but the government is demanding tax on printed price. Books are being stuck on customs because of this disagreement between government and vendors. Students are protesting against this move of the government because finally this tax will be imposed on them. Thus, there is a shortage of imported books and the price of available books is hiked.
These are some primary difficulties that our team went through. But like we know, necessity is the mother of invention – we’re determined to make this library rich in collections by any means possible.
Junkiri is a free library and it is open for all. Anyone can become a member. Besides that, we will also run various book clubs and other educational activities focusing on feminism. Junkiri will become a feminist space where everyone can enhance their knowledge through books related to feminist issues. It will help everyone, from students to rights activists to academicians to lawmakers, to understand and philosophize the feminist issue that will eventually enrich the society.
New South Asian 