Kathmandu (AsiaNews) - A celebration for women with a Hindu flavor, during which married women ask for "a happy marriage", while unmarried women pray to meet "the man of their dreams" and to "live happily ever after together". The holiday is also an occasion for the gentler sex to demand "greater rights and freedoms", to protest against the government or against social injustice, corruption, and abuse in the country.

It is the festival of Teej, which takes place from September 1-4, and sees all the women of Nepal fast from sunrise to sunset, intoning hymns and songs - dressed in red and adorned with opulent jewelry - in front of the temples and images of the god Shiva, in a mix of tradition and modernity, of submission to their men together with demands for greater power for the "gentler sex".

According to the Hindu myth taken up in the Nepalese tradition, the festival of Teej represents the sacrifices carried out by the goddess Parbati in order to marry the god Shiva and have a happy marriage. Shiva therefore ultimately symbolizes all of the men of the country, while the women who follow the example and actions of Parbati can obtain "long life, good health, and well mannered husbands, who respect them and know how to make them happy".

All of the Hindu  women in the country, during the days of this feast, go on pilgrimage to the temple of the god Shiva and intone songs to forget the sufferings caused by fasting; at sunset, a brief prayer interrupts their mortifications, and they are able to eat and drink. According to sources for the police stationed near the temple of the god Shiva in Pashupati, medical personnel have had to attend to a number of cases of fainting or illness. More than sixty women have been hospitalized: in order to reach the altar of the temple and offer their prayers, the women must face long lines, often waiting for more than four hours.

The young women present for the feast include Sitasma Chanda, Miss Nepal 2007. She is still single, and confesses to AsiaNews that "family is of utmost importance", and she is praying to the god for "the husband who will be part of it". Komal Wali,another famous face in Nepal, is asking for a husband "full of creativity and adventurous", while a 65-year-old woman is praying that "my fasting will endow my husband long life and prosperity". Out of step with the rest is 22-year-old Shanta Pandey, just married, who says "I don't believe in the feast", but nevertheless wants to participate because it is "an integral part of Nepalese culture".

For the occasion of the feast, Nepal's prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, called upon all Hindu women to promote national "cooperation and unity". "We appeal to all the women to use their power in reforming society to build a truly new Nepal". Solidarity with the women has also been expressed by President Ram Baran Yadav, who says that he will join them in "fighting against any kind of social discrimination".