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Photo: Courtesy of Poulomi Basu/VII Mentor Program.

Tell us the story behind this photograph.

"Rihana Shekh Dhafali is 17 years old. Rihana was married around a year-and-a-half ago, when she was 15 or 16 years old. She said she was often made to starve for four or five days in a row. Her mother-in-law tried to set her on fire once, but Rihana escaped and fled to India to her cousins. Her in-laws pleaded and apologized and took her back, only to repeat the crime in another 20 days.



"When she was seven months pregnant, she was set on fire by her husband and her mother-in-law. It was ostensibly because of her dowry, but in reality, it was because she was pregnant with a baby girl and the family knew that.



"Rihana said when she begged for release, her husband and mother-in-law said, 'We will let you go, but only in such a way that you will be no longer left in a position to be used by anyone else.'



"Her hands were tied and kerosene was poured over her body. The fire burned her belly from the waist down, taking the life of her unborn child. Her husband and his family had fled and will probably go unpunished for their crime. And now, because she has been abandoned, she is considered a widow, with a life ostracized by society to follow.



"Rihana said, 'Even before I was burnt, my husband used to physically abuse me. He would burn my private parts with lighted cigarettes. On that day, my husband asked me for a glass of water, then kicked me from behind, tied my hands, and with my mother-in-law, poured kerosene over my body and then set me on fire.'



"Rihana was admitted to the hospital under the pretext that she had to lie. She had to say how she was burnt by accident and not in her husband and family's attempt to murder her. The husband's family have now fled to India. Rihana was photographed at Bir Hospital, in Kathmandu, Nepal."