Conflict: Gita Rasaili

“My past, which I share so many others, never passes. The only way to the future is through the past.”

Gita grew up during armed conflict and authoritarian rule. She became a champion for the victims and powerless, lost a sister to torture, rape, and murder, and became a justice leader. Gita is among the leaders were women with histories of vulnerability, violence, recovery and thwarted aspirations, find support, recognition, and a way to make their voices heard. Gita was born at the lower caste's intersection, with lesser gender and disabling poverty in rural Nepal. Her village is a lower caste community, cut off from equal access to essential services and dominated by patriarchy and dependence on patronage for survival.

The internal armed conflict (1996-2006) emerged from these fault lines and consumed Gita's family in unspeakably brutal ways. This did not deter her. Driven by her aspiration that future generations should not carry such burdens, Gita reached out and found enough common ground with many others, inside and outside Nepal.