“Let’s give an opportunity to a young lady, she can do everything.”
“I’m a married woman of 24 years. I have one child of seven years old and I’m the fourth child of my parents. I was born in a […] family [in] Eastern Nepal, Udayapur. I was a bit talented from my childhood, all family members loved me more.
When I turned 17, I got married.
At the time, I couldn’t say no [to] marriage because of culture. After one year later, I [had a] baby; at the time I stopped my college, my study, and after one year later I joined college.
At the time I sold my gold earring and got admission because my family didn’t want […] and I convinced hardly. This one is memorable for me, there was a dance competition on a district level, and I led my college and participated. [I] got [first] prize in [the] competition.
At that time I felt I’m not mother, I’m not married, because in our community, married women are not free for dancing, joining college. More people think that married women should stay at home, look after her husband, family just, but I crossed a line and I passed class two with highest mark in college.
Then I joined a radio in 2009. At the time I was interested [in] anchoring in the radio, but when I [got] involved in [the] radio, I started to think about community issues, especially women’s issues, and I started to collect content and I [got a] radio program. I call it A Hundred of Women Grieve: History; it’s made me more responsible. After that, radio management committee selected me as a manager of the station. In this way, I’m involving women through media in Nepal.
Really there is not […], [I] manage everything, my house, child, office, the study, but I believe that everything is possible if I want, if you want. And this is [great], they believe me and my team. So I say: Let’s give an opportunity to a young lady, she can do everything.”
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Bandana Danuwar is the station manager at Radio Udayapur, a community radio station run by girls and women based in Udayapur, Eastern Nepal. Radio Udayapur became a FRIDA Grantee Partner in 2013 with a new project – Un-Veiling – aimed at ending child marriage.
