Kathmandu, December 6

As the country is marking 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence from November 25 to December 10 with the theme ‘Leave no one behind: end violence against women and girls’ National Alliance of Women Human Rights Defenders organised a programme here to commemorate the December 6, 1989 Montreal massacre.

The Montreal massacre was a mass shooting at École Polytechnique in Quebec, Canada. Twenty-five-year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a Mini-14 rifle and a hunting knife, shot 28 people, killing 14 women, before committing suicide.

His suicide note said he was fighting feminism and blamed feminists for ruining his life. The note included a list of 19 Quebec women whom Lépine considered to be feminists and apparently wished to kill.

The commemoration event was marked by reciting poems about several forms of discrimination women faced in society.

Reports reveal that there hasn’t been any significant decline in incidents of violence against women. As per Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, in the five years since 2011 there has only been a slight decline in the percentage of married women who faced physical or sexual violence.

Women’s experience of physical, sexual or emotional violence by spouse varies by ecological zone. Almost one-third of women in Tarai (32 per cent) report experiencing spousal physical, sexual or emotional violence, compared to less than 20 per cent women in the hills and mountains.

Women who are employed for cash are more likely (34 per cent) than women not employed for cash or not employed at all (22 per cent to 23 per cent) to have ever experienced spousal physical, sexual or emotional violence.