Nepali 'menstruation hut' ritual claims life of teenage girl

By Sugam Pokharel, CNN
Updated 8:12 AM ET, Mon July 10, 2017

New Delhi (CNN)A teenage girl in Nepal has died after she was bitten by a snake while banished to a cowshed during a menstruation ritual that sees young women separated from their families and made to sleep alone.

The victim, 19-year-old Tulasi Shahi, from western Nepal's Dailekh district, was taking part in chhaupadi, a common practice in the west of the country in which women, considered unclean during menstruation, are sequestered for the extent of their periods.

It's a ritual that Shahi had likely endured many times before, but on Thursday night, alone on the floor of her uncle's cowshed, the teenager was bitten by a poisonous snake. "Twice, on her head and leg," the local district mayor Surya Bahadur Shahi told CNN.

Shahi's family members initially attempted to treat her using home remedies, before later taking her to a local health center, which did not stock the anti-venom medicines needed.

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