Dr Bhawana Shrestha

Migration is often spoken about through achievement. The scholarship abroad. The job opportunity. The visa approval. The amount sent back home. We celebrate departures as courage and arrivals as success. Less often do we speak about what people carry between those moments. Because leaving is rarely only geographical. Sometimes people leave for education. Sometimes for […]

There is a particular kind of tiredness that does not come from long hours or physical work. It comes from not knowing how things will turn out -from systems that feel unpredictable, from processes that change depending on who you know, from situations where effort does not always lead to fair outcomes. It is the […]

In recent months, as conversations around adolescent sexual violence in Nepal have grown more urgent, a familiar pattern has resurfaced. Advice begins to circulate, directed at girls. “Be careful.” “Don’t stay out late.” “Avoid certain places.” “Dress appropriately.” These instructions are often shared with concern, even love. But they reveal something deeper: the responsibility for […]

There’s a familiar ache that many women know but rarely name, the pang of guilt that follows when we say “no.” No to a family obligation. No to staying late at work. No to putting someone else’s comfort ahead of our own needs. I have felt it too, sometimes in a subtle way and other […]