What women wear

Namaste.
Here in Besisahar there are a range of different clothes worn by women, depending on ethnicity, choice, age and occasion.  In Nepali culture, it is unacceptable for women to bare their legs or shoulders, so clothes choice is governed by this standard.

European style clothes are often favoured by younger women; jeans and t-shirts can frequently be seen around the towns and villages.  As most young Nepali women are very slim, jeans look great on them, but it is very rare to see older women wearing them.

Youth volunteers practising skipping

Traditional Nepali dress for women is the 'kurta salwaar', a thigh-length or knee-length tunic worn over trousers or sometimes leggings. Often these are very brightly coloured and the kurta is beautifully embroidered, with matching scarf to complete the ensemble. Nepali women, with their darker brown skin and glossy black hair, suit the bright colours that they favour.  Many of them look very beautiful in this traditional garb!
These two beautiful young women pictured below in their kurtas are Community Mobilisers who work for Global Action Nepal with me on the Sisters for Sisters project.

Samjana

Menuka

I always wear a kurta for my visits to schools and find the baggy trousers comfortable and reasonably cool for the long walks. I have purple, pink  and turquoise trousers, which I would never dream of wearing back home, but are so much admired here! Kurta tunics are often made well-fitting and quite tight, but I find my looser ones much more comfortable in hot weather.



Another popular style, worn by many women of the 'Gurung' ethnic group around this area, is the 'lungi'.  This is a long piece of boldly patterned material wound around to make a long skirt and turned over at the waist to secure it.  Often there is also a band of different plain material, also around the waist, forming a sort of thick cummerbund. With this skirt women may wear a traditional blouse or a modern t-shirt.  They will often wear a shawl over their shoulders. As a western woman, with a longer stride, I find a lungi quite difficult to walk in, but sometimes wear one to potter around the flat, and I love the designs of the materials.

For special occasions such as special festivals and weddings, women like to dress up in saris.  Weddings especially are an occasion for best clothes and the saris in red and gold are beautiful. The festival of Teej is another time for saris to be worn, especially red and/or green ones. These colours denote that a woman is married.


Srijana, the District Coordinator looks stunning in her new sari, worn for a presentation evening. How elegant the sari looks.


And below is a photo of Judith, my partner volunteer in Besisahar, and myself in our new saris ready for the Teej festival. They look elegant, however I felt quite worried that mine would fall down, as saris are only kept up by being tucked into the petticoat!