A young Nepali woman has died of suspected smoke inhalation while she was banished to a shed for menstruating under an ancient tradition banned more than a decade ago, police said Wednesday. Many communities in Nepal view menstruating women as impure and in some remote areas they are forced to sleep in a hut away from the home, a practice known as chhaupadi. Gauri Bayak, 21, was found dead by her neighbours inside a smoke-filled hut on Monday morning in a village in the western district of Achham. “She had lit a fire to keep herself warm and we suspect she suffocated and died of smoke inhalation,” local police chief Dadhi Ram Neupane told AFP. Police are waiting for the results of a postmortem to confirm the cause of death. Chhaupadi is linked to Hinduism and considers women untouchable when they menstruate, as well as after childbirth. Barred from touching food, religious icons, cattle and men, they are banished from the home and forced to sleep in basic huts. The practice was banned in 2005 but is still followed in parts of Nepal, particularly in remote western regions. Published in Daily Times, January 11th 2018.