In 2001, a tragic multiple murder and suicide in Nepal’s royal family brought to the throne King Gyanendra, who dismissed the government, assumed total power, and instituted martial law four years later, inflaming the leftist Maoist rebellion and causing untold anguish for the majority of the population.
Enlightening and moving, horrifying and inspiring, Sari Soldiers takes you into the heart of the conflict from the points of view of six different women – a recruit into the officer corps of the Royal Nepalese Army, a leader of the pro-democracy student protestors, a captain in the Maoist rebel army, a rural mother who had spearheaded a women’s movement to drive the Maoists out, a Kathmandu human rights activist, and, most tragically, a peasant woman whose daughter was “disappeared” by the Royal Army in retribution for the mother’s speaking out about how they had murdered her niece.
This unique take on the costs incurred from civil strife is not to be missed.