ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
August 21, 2017
Nepal strengthens laws against
dowry, menstrual exile
By Roshan Sedhai
The Associated Press
ATHMANDU, Nepal —
Nepal’s parliament has
passed a bill toward making
women safer by strengthening laws
against acid attacks along with the
ancient Hindu customs of demanding
dowry payments for marriage and
exiling women who are menstru-
ating.
The new law goes into effect in
August 2018, with violators who force
women into exile facing punishments
of up to three months in jail or a fine of
3,000 Nepalese rupees, or about $29.
Many menstruating women are
still forced to leave their homes and
take shelter in unhygienic or insecure
huts or cow sheds until their cycle
ends, though the practice — called
Chhaupadi — was actually outlawed
a decade ago. But without any
assigned penalties, the custom
continued in many parts of the
majority Hindu Himalayan country,
especially in the western hills.
While exiled in isolation, some
women face bitter cold or attacks by
wild animals. Unclean conditions can
also cause infections.
“People will be discouraged to
follow this discriminatory custom due
to fear of punishment” now that the
new bill is passed, said lawmaker
Krishna Bhakta Pokhrel, from the
committee that drafted the bill.
But a female parliamentarian from
the far-western district of Doti, where
menstrual exile is still practiced, said
K
CONFLICTING EVIDENCE. Democracy party member Howard
Lam displays wounds — stapled crosses on his thighs — during a press
conference in Hong Kong. The strange case of the pro-democracy activist
who claimed mainland Chinese agents stapled his legs as a warning has
taken another twist after police arrested Lam on suspicion of providing
false information. (AP Photo/Apple Daily)
Hong Kong activist arrested
over allegation of stapled legs
By Kelvin Chan
The Associated Press
ONG KONG — The strange case of a Hong Kong
pro-democracy activist who claimed mainland
Chinese agents stapled his legs as a warning has
taken another twist after police arrested him on suspicion
of providing false information.
Howard Lam made waves with his eye-catching
allegations, which rekindled fears about Beijing
interfering in Hong Kong despite promising it
considerable autonomy since the 1997 handover from
Britain. But police said his story didn’t check out.
“The victim’s reports about his activities on that day
and the investigation’s results do not match,” police said
in a statement, “At this time, there’s no evidence that
anyone was illegally detained in Hong Kong.”
Lam, 42, had intended to send a signed photo of
Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi to Liu Xia, the widow of
late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, and posted his
plans on Facebook. He said he received a call from an
acquaintance on the mainland warning him not to send
the photo.
Lam said that unknown Mandarin-speaking men
abducted him from a busy street in Cantonese-speaking
Hong Kong and rendered him unconscious. He said they
beat him and warned him not to follow through on his
plan.
He said they also stapled Xs into his thighs because he is
Christian. He displayed his wounds to reporters at a news
conference, flanked by fellow members of Hong Kong’s
Democratic Party, before filing a police report and going to
a hospital.
Police said they arrested Lam on suspicion of providing
false information to mislead police after looking into his
allegations, including checking surveillance footage from
cameras in the area.
Democratic party chairman Wu Chi-wai said party
leaders decided to air Lam’s allegations in public instead
of going to police right away because they feared for his
personal safety.
He said Hong Kong’s biggest pro-democracy party
would provide a full account after the police concluded
their investigation.
“We hope the truth will come to light as soon as
possible,” Wu told reporters.
Lam’s case stirred concerns that Beijing is tightening
its hold on Hong Kong, following other recent cases
including the secret detention of a group of Hong Kong
booksellers and a Chinese-Canadian tycoon whose
whereabouts are unknown. In both cases, mainland
security agents are suspected of taking them across the
border, in violation of Hong Kong’s constitution.
H
CHHAUPADI PENALIZED. In this September 20, 2012 file photo, a Nepalese woman
lashes herself with the leaves of an Aghada herb as part of a ritual in the Bagmati River during Rishi
Panchami, a day when Hindu women perform rituals to wash away sins committed during menstru-
ation, a period considered impure, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Nepal’s parliament has passed a bill that
goes into effect in August 2018. Violators who force women into exile face punishment of up to
three months in jail or a fine of 3,000 Nepalese rupees, or about $29. Many menstruating women
are still forced to leave their homes and take shelter in unhygienic or insecure huts or cow sheds
until their cycle ends, because of the practice — called Chhaupadi — which was actually outlawed
a decade ago. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha, File)
passing the legislation alone would
“Like it happens elsewhere in
not be enough, and the government Nepal, I was asked not to enter inside
should also invest in educating the temple or the kitchen,” she said.
women on good hygiene.
“But I never had to go to sleep in [the]
“Fear of punishment will not stop shed.”
people from following this custom
The legislation was part of an
who think women are impure during ongoing effort to improve the
menstruation,” Gauri Kumari Oli country’s laws, and also criminalizes
told The AP. “The government and other deep-rooted customs that harm
non-governmental agencies should women, including slavery, acid
attacks, and the dowry system, by
start to do more to raise awareness.”
She herself was made to observe which a woman’s family must secure
the custom, albeit not so strictly, she her marriage prospects by paying the
groom and his family.
said.
New hope for endangered eels, Japanese summer delicacy
Continued from page 2
mainly in the flashy Ginza shopping and dining district.
The choice eels are often served in different styles to the
traditional kabayaki eels, which are grilled in a coating of
dark soy sauce marinade. Restaurants that specialize in
kabayaki, often handed down generation to generation,
may offer both wild and farmed eels — with supply
depending on what is available that day at the market.
At Hashimoto, a Michelin one-star kabayaki restaurant
in Tokyo that first opened in 1835, the eels are all
farm-raised the conventional way on the southern island
of Kyushu, after being caught as glass eels.
Like farmed salmon, farmed eels raised from
wild-caught glass eels tend to be fattier. “They have a
flavor that is preferred by most customers,” says Shinji
Hashimoto, the sixth-generation owner.
Hashimoto says his kabayaki sauce is “light,” to allow
the eel’s flavor to come through.
“The Tokyo palette has traditionally disliked sweet
flavors,” he says.
To manage with fewer catches and higher prices,
Hashimoto tries to get two servings out of larger eels.
After cleaning and slicing them open, the cooks skewer
them to ensure they will stay together while cooking. They
are grilled directly over hot charcoal, then steamed to
soften the flesh. Afterward they are coated in a sauce of
soy sauce boiled with sweet rice wine, or mirin, and then
returned to the grill and basted three times before being
served as unajyu, steaming hot over rice in a neat lacquer
FARMING FUTURE. Shinji Hashimoto, the owner of a Michelin
one-star unagi restaurant, prepares live unagi for dinner service. The res-
taurant first opened in 1835 and is now in its sixth generation. The restau-
rant uses only farmed eel, which tend to be larger and fattier than wild eel.
The endangered Japanese summer delicacy may get a new lease on life
with commercial farming. (AP Photo/Sherry Zheng)
box.
The busiest days tend to be the Day of the Ox on the
lunar calendar, the first of which in 2017 was July 25.
Hashimoto served about 150 customers that day.
“Even if the price rose to 10,000 yen (about $90) for one
box of unajyu, Japanese people would still eat it once a
year,” Tsukamoto said. “Why do Japanese people like
unagi? Because we like soy sauce. The salty-sweet sauce,
made from a mixture of soy sauce and mirin, is brushed
on, is singed and grilled on the eel over charcoal — and
that smell makes it irresistible.”
Cambodia’s PM wants U.S.-born grandchild to not be American
By Sopheng Cheang
The Associated Press
HNOM PENH, Cambodia — The
prime minister of Cambodia, a
country whose uneasy relation-
ship with the United States has involved
war, refugee emigration, and years of
on-off political tension, says he does not
want his U.S.-born grandchild to have an
American passport.
Hun Sen, whose country was the site of
one of the 20th century’s most terrible
genocides, said he is worried his 14-year-
old grandchild could be eligible to fight for
the U.S. military.
P
Hun Sen said he was looking for a way
for his grandchild, whom he did not name,
to give up his or her U.S. citizenship.
“Now I am finding a way to renounce
U.S. citizenship from my grandchild
because probably the U.S. will make war
with some countries and will require my
grandchild to be a U.S soldier,” he said in
comments posted on Facebook.
The grandchild was born when his or her
parents were studying in the United
States. Hun Sen, 64, and his wife, Bun
Rany, have six children, including one
adopted daughter they have disowned.
Most, if not all, of them had some
education abroad, including son Hun
Manet, who attended the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point.
U.S. citizens are not currently compelled
to perform military service, although
males are required to register for conscrip-
tion when they turn 18. Hun Sen said he
did not want his grandchild to join the U.S.
military to fight against other countries.
U.S. citizens must make a formal
declaration to renounce their citizenship.
It cannot be done by parents or others, nor
can any child under 16 because they are
not considered mature enough. A minor
between 16 and 18 must demonstrate they
are doing so willingly and with full
understanding of the consequences.
Hun Sen has an uneasy relationship
with the United States, whom he feels
supports his political opponents. Washing-
ton criticizes his record on human rights
but tries to keep an even-keeled
relationship to offset the strong influence
China has in Cambodia.
Hun Sen is a fan of President Donald
Trump, and even voiced his support for
him before last year’s U.S. election, saying
that as a businessman, Trump would want
peace and could be friends with Russian
Continued on page 7