For a few days of every month, teenage girls living in the small Nepalese village of Sindhuli are separated from their families, restricted from eating fruit or drinking milk and banned from seeing the sun. Some are kept out of school and refused the simple pleasure of reading a book, while others are forbidden from looking in a mirror or touching their relatives. Some are even banished to outdoor sheds.

Their only crime? Getting their monthly period.

These teens are considered ‘impure’ or ‘contaminated’ during menstruation, and the cultural norms of their society mean they are placed under these varying restrictions until their periods end.

However, there is some good news for teenage girls living in the region: lawmakers in Nepal are finally starting to dismantle the tradition of Chhaupadi.

“We are kept separately and not touched. I feel hated”: teens in Nepal document the stigma surrounding periods