Nepali women, two sons die in menstruation hut

Kathmandu: A 35-year-old Nepali woman and two of her sons died reportedly due to suffocation during their stay in a windowless hut where she was staying as part of a practice that considers women untouchable during menstruation, according to a media report.

The incident happened in Nepal's Bajura district when Amba Bohora, who was on the fourth day of her period, on Tuesday night had dinner with her two sons aged 9 and 12 and later went to the hut to sleep with a fire near to keep the hut warm, the Kathmandu post reported. The hut neither had windows nor ventilation. The next morning when Amba's mother in-law opened the door of the hut, she found all three dead. All three had died of suffocation due to a fire, the report said.

"The mother and her children may have suffocated by smoke after the blanket they were using to warm themselves caught fire while they were asleep," a senior villager was quoted as saying. While the bodies were sent for post mortem, the Chief District Officer Chetraj Baral said a team including the district police chief was sent to the incident site to probe the matter, the paper reported. As part of the tradition many communities in Nepal consider menstruating women impure and force female of menstruation age to stay in sheds away from the family home once a month despite the practice being banned.