DOUNIAMAG-NEPAL-WOMEN-RELIGION-SOCIETY

In this photograph taken on February 3, 2017, Nepalese woman Pabitra Giri prepares to sleep in a Chhaupadi hut during her menstruation period in Surkhet District, some 520km west of Kathmandu. The practice of banning women from the home when they are menstruating is linked to Hinduism and considers women untouchable at this time. They are banished from the home -- barred from touching food, religious icons, cattle and men -- and forced into a monthly exile sleeping in basic huts. Chhaupadi was banned a decade ago, but new legislation currently before parliament will criminalise the practice, making it a jailable offence to force a women to follow the ritual. / AFP PHOTO / PRAKASH MATHEMA / TO GO WITH AFP STORY: Nepal-women-religion-society, FEATURE by Annabel SYMINGTON (Photo credit should read PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images)