Yesterday, one of my friends here in the US who has been highly interested in our trip to Nepal sent me the link to a news story. It was about a woman in a remote Nepali village who had been accused of witchcraft, and of causing the drowning death of young boy. As punishment, the woman was severely beaten and then burned to death.

Unfortunately, this was not the first time I had heard of this. When we were in Bara district in the south of Nepal, we heard multiple examples of this problem from a single organization. This organization helped to defend the women accused in these cases, and they explained to us some of the culture behind these accusations. Only women are ever accused of witchcraft, though both men and women have been known to make accusations of witchcraft. These women are always Dalit (from the lowest caste), and are usually either single or widowed. Additionally, the organization explained to us a common belief that “women are born witches”, because they can keep a child inside them for nine months: only something supernatural could do something of that nature. Women accused of witchcraft are often forced to eat feces, because it is believed that is the only way to get the witch out.

One story this organization told us had a happier ending than that of the news article. In this case, a woman’s young son had been bitten twice by a snake, and she accused a local Dalit woman of using witchcraft to harm her son. But the accused, with help from this organization, was able to fight the accusation: it turned into a big case and eventually the accuser was forced to apologize and pay compensation. Unfortunately, in this more recent news story, the accused was not so lucky.

Coming from a Western background, we might be tempted to dismiss this entire talk of witchcraft as nonsense from the very start. However, I think these cases are just one example of the extremely complicated relationship between ‘culture’ and ‘development’. A ‘developed’, just society should not have this practice where the underprivileged are accused of witchcraft in order to explain the problems of others, but at the same time, is it right to completely dismiss something that has been a part of Nepali culture for centuries? It is a sensitive issue, and it is hard to figure out how certain aspects of culture can fit in as a society moves forward. But no matter what, the horrifying results of these types of problems, such as a woman being burned alive, must be stopped.