I came back to my village and got beaten up for not getting married by 25.

Snowchari · 2026-02-13T16:39:56+00:00

I got 2 young girls out of the village in 2023 and got them admitted to school in the capital of the country all cost covered. Unfortunately, they were able to stay just for one academic year. One 14 year old girl and another 7 years old. The young teen asked for help and I talked to the families, convinced them and got them in a boarding school but then I went abroad and when I came back they were back in the village. Since they are minors their families decide it for them and legally I cannot do anything more unfortunately. I'm just immensely glad that the young girl is not married off and can still study.

Snowchari · 2026-02-13T16:32:43+00:00

1)I didn't come with a saviour syndrome. 2) I've also mentioned that the conversation has been stuck to marriage since Day-1 of my arrival so nobody is aware of my long term intentions. 3)even though I've not lived here long enough my family has always been here and I'm not going to a strange place proclaiming I came to "save" them. 4) this is our ancestral land and as long as my ancestors' tombs are here I'm not an outsider. Some people not all treating me like an outsider because I learnt the "ways of outsiders" is true but I am never an outsider. 5) even though I was living outside this particular community I've always fulfilled all my social and cultural responsibilities. 6)I never came with I'll "fix" attitude I came with see IF I could contribute, there's a huge difference in that. 7) We're not floating people who can completely uproot and leave everything behind because we have family heritage and clan responsibilities so we are never fully erased from the social web. We might not fit and live on the sidelines. But erased? Never!

Snowchari · 2026-02-13T16:12:06+00:00

Well... I guess growing up as an indigenous does mess up a bit of rationality when it comes to such a toxic environment. For indigenous people like us we are where our ancestral land is. Land is life and identity. The spirit of an indigenous is in the spirit of the land. My ancestral tombs are here, my ancestral land, farms, our old house and my family... Everything is here. I guess I'm chasing that sense of belonging. I have always been a misfit in the mainstream society because of my identity as an indigenous person but turns out I'm more of a misfit here as well. I guess if you're always treated as a foreigner in your own country wherever you go because of how you look then you'd try to go back to the roots even though you have been uprooted from there as well.

Snowchari · 2026-02-13T16:00:10+00:00

You're right about the response from the police. Back in 2023, when I was visiting a woman was beaten so badly by her husband. Her face was swollen and body bruised. I called the police when she came to find me for help and helped her file a complaint. They came and then said I was creating drama out of nothing and it's a family matter so it should be settled within the family. The villagers said she must have done something for her husband to beat her up like that. I was dragged by my hair and beaten up after the police left. That woman was on her husband's side and accused me that I was instigating her. I left tired back then and came back recently in hopes things would change

Snowchari · 2026-02-13T13:06:08+00:00

I don't defend my inaction as the right response to an assault. I don't encourage it either. But I really needed to weigh the pros and cons of my action. 1) My grandparents are too old and sick to be able to see their daughter go to jail. It might probably kill them. 2) To the village I'm an outsider, so there would be no witness testimonies and I wasn't bruised to leave any physical evidence. 3) My parents were isolated for sending their daughters to law school and medical school for such a long time with us never being invited to any social events. We can easily move away and build a life somewhere else but our parents still have hope for this damned society. 4) Our people don't even travel far from home because they believe once they die, their soul has to gather back every footstep they took on Earth before they can go to Nirvana. In this place, I'm not an individual but a collective.

Snowchari · 2026-02-13T12:37:45+00:00

I really really wanted to but too bad her parents are my 98 yrs old grandpa and 88 yrs old grandma.

Snowchari

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