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Activists Around the World: Rakshya Bam · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: And Samantha.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told You, a production
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 3: And welcome to another activist around the world. And we
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  Speaker 3: are talking about the activism and advocacy of Nepali Gen Zer,
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  Speaker 3: Raksha Bham.
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  Speaker 2: So Bham has become actually a historical figure already.
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  Speaker 3: Like she's already made history within the country of Nepal already. honestly,
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: around the world. She has become a leader in the
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  Speaker 3: Gen Z movement that has made some amazing changes, some
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  Speaker 3: slow changes, and some big impacts within Nepal. So before
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  Speaker 3: we talk about the movement, let's talk about who she is.
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  Speaker 3: Bom grew up in a middle-class family and has talked
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  Speaker 3: about the fact that she had a bit more privilege
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  Speaker 3: than other girls in her community. So this is from
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  Speaker 3: an article from english.onlinekabar.com. They write, born in 1999 in Kalali,
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  Speaker 3: Raksha's childhood was different from that of many girls in
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  Speaker 3: the far West. She did not face discrimination for being
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  Speaker 3: a girl. Her middle-class family did everything possible to secure
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  Speaker 3: a bright future for their children. Most importantly, she was
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  Speaker 3: not discriminated against in education. The awareness she developed through
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  Speaker 3: the education has now become a valuable asset for society.
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  Speaker 3: She said, in my home, I was never restricted for
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  Speaker 3: being a girl, but I felt the discrimination in the
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  Speaker 3: structure of society from an early age.
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  Speaker 2: So it's it's great to see that.
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  Speaker 3: Her family really did foster her ability to get her education.
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  Speaker 3: And in that article, they talk about the area, saying
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  Speaker 3: though it was diverse and seemingly cohesive and unified, as
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  Speaker 3: in there didn't seem to be big scales of discrimination,
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  Speaker 3: so it seemed everything was great, that there was still
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  Speaker 3: a caste system in place. So back to that article,
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  Speaker 3: she says, But seeing Taru people who worked in others'
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  Speaker 3: homes being made to eat separately left me deeply saddened.
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  Speaker 3: I kept wondering why such discrimination existed. So the actual
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  Speaker 3: practice of the caste system was legally abolished, but that
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  Speaker 3: didn't mean it didn't still exist. And the existence made
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  Speaker 3: her question a lot about how society treated the marginalized community.
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  Speaker 3: And it's during these formative years, bombs started to protest
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  Speaker 3: against the system. whether it was defying who she could
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  Speaker 3: eat with or how she ate or just understanding that
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  Speaker 3: something needed to change. So essentially, like people within the
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  Speaker 3: lower caste systems had to eat on specific types of plates,
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  Speaker 3: it explains. And she would defy that and use that plate.
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  Speaker 3: And no one really were like, oh, you can't do that.
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  Speaker 3: But in her mind, she knew it was setting a
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  Speaker 3: precedent for herself and understanding like this is not OK.
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  Speaker 3: Something needs to change and I'm not going to be
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  Speaker 3: a part of that system.
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  Speaker 1: So very young.
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  Speaker 2: I love to see that.
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  Speaker 3: So back to that article. Her childhood grew alongside a
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  Speaker 3: political awakening society. There was a people's movement against the monarchy,
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  Speaker 3: and the Maoist insurgence was nearing its end. After the movement,
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  Speaker 3: discussions about marginalized groups, indigenous people, women, madasis, tarus, and
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  Speaker 3: minorities became mainstream. Raksha followed these conversations closely. She was
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  Speaker 3: always ahead of her age in questioning discrimination. So in
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  Speaker 3: another article written for KathmanduPost.com, they write this. Eight organizations
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  Speaker 3: described it as a place of struggle, the communities she
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  Speaker 3: was in. Baum did not accept that. More than struggles,
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  Speaker 3: her home had culture, nature, and possibilities. What it lacked
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  Speaker 3: was justice and attention from those in power. Kalali is
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  Speaker 3: not poor. It is made poor, she says. And that's
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  Speaker 3: such a different perspective. It takes so many of us
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  Speaker 3: so long to understand that. It's not because they didn't
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  Speaker 3: do something or they didn't work this way. It's just
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  Speaker 3: the way the system was set up. And she really
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  Speaker 3: figured that out when she was quite young. Since then,
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  Speaker 3: she has continued her journey in activism. She went on
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  Speaker 3: to get her bachelor's in social work, fellow social worker,
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  Speaker 3: and master's in gender studies. She is a proud feminist
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  Speaker 3: and has talked about understanding what feminism is, saying this,
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  Speaker 3: feminism didn't come from books.
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  Speaker 2: It came from experience. Amen, girl.
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  Speaker 3: Amen. And she's talked about how she started understanding about
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  Speaker 3: the inequalities while studying outside of her home. So back
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  Speaker 3: to that Kathmandu post This shift opened her eyes to inequality.
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  Speaker 3: The move to the city felt like stepping into a
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  Speaker 3: different world. Life in the capital looked full of opportunities,
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  Speaker 3: while her hometown felt ignored. That contrast disturbed her. She
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  Speaker 3: began questioning why basic services were missing in her province.
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  Speaker 3: People had to rush to India for better health care.
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  Speaker 3: Students had to travel far from home to study. This
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  Speaker 3: did not feel like an accident to her. It felt
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  Speaker 3: like a system designed to leave people behind. Again, I
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  Speaker 3: think that's amazing that she understood that because even when
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  Speaker 3: we look at the areas in the U.S. and where
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  Speaker 3: hospitals are accessible, that's that same conversation. Why do we
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  Speaker 3: have to go to the main cities to get actual
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  Speaker 3: good care?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Her time studying social work included field work at rural schools,
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  Speaker 3: farming communities, and programs like the Red Cross. And she
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  Speaker 3: said this about that experience. Social work taught me acceptance.
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  Speaker 3: It taught me to accept different opinions.
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  Speaker 1: It does.
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  Speaker 3: Social work teaches you a lot. acceptance and also, again,
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  Speaker 3: being aware of inequities that need to be addressed. And
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  Speaker 3: she's talked about how visiting different villages really opened her
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  Speaker 3: eyes as she realized that children oftentimes didn't have access
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  Speaker 3: to basic school supplies. And with that, she worked with
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  Speaker 3: the USAID Fellowship about misinformation and the right to information.
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  Speaker 3: So this is from that english.onlinekabar.com article. The right to
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  Speaker 3: information should be taught from the school level, she says.
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  Speaker 3: She interacted with hundreds of students and continued advocating for
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  Speaker 3: social justice, not because she believed she could change the
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  Speaker 3: country overnight, but because she believed questions must be preserved. Again,
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  Speaker 3: we talked a lot about misinformation and disinformation, and a
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  Speaker 3: part of that conversation is erasing the actual questions that
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  Speaker 3: should be asked, even when it can't be answered. Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 3: And it was after the brutal rape and murder of
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  Speaker 3: Nirmala Pant that she started to join protests and public activism, saying, quote,
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  Speaker 3: That's where I heard justice delayed is justice denied. That's
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  Speaker 3: such a big saying. And since then, she has continued
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  Speaker 3: to be active in movements within her community. And on
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  Speaker 3: September of 2025, she was one of the young leaders
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  Speaker 3: of the Gen Z uprising in Kathmandu. So from Harbinger's Magazine,
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  Speaker 3: they write, the Gen Z protests took place on September
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  Speaker 3: 8th and 9th, 2025, killing 77 people and injuring hundreds more.
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  Speaker 3: They resulted in the overthrow of the government led by
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  Speaker 3: KP Sharma Ali and the formation of a new interim government.
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  Speaker 3: So a little more information about that from ElPaz.com. When
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  Speaker 3: Raksha Bomb 26 saw Nepali flags flying over the Gen
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  Speaker 3: Z protests in Madagascar, she realized that what her generation
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  Speaker 3: in Kathmandu had accomplished was historic. Just a few days before,
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  Speaker 3: protests broke out in the African island in September 2025.
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  Speaker 3: The actions started by young people born between the end
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  Speaker 3: of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s had
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  Speaker 3: culminated with the fall of KP Sharma Oli's administration. In Madagascar,
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  Speaker 3: they used our flag as a symbol of rebellion. But
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  Speaker 3: without a doubt, we were also inspired by other countries.
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  Speaker 3: We followed the movements in Bangladesh and Indonesia. The entire
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  Speaker 3: world was suffering, recalls BAM, the coordinator of Nepal Gen
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  Speaker 3: Z Front.
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  Speaker 2: So, wow.
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  Speaker 3: And it continues, the young activist and feminist who graduated
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  Speaker 3: with a degree in social work and master's in gender
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  Speaker 3: studies was one of the most prominent faces of the
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  Speaker 3: movement born online and in the streets after the government
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  Speaker 3: of Nepal prohibited 26 social media platforms, among them YouTube, Facebook, Instagram,
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  Speaker 3: and WhatsApp. Gen Z rose up to protest corruption, abuse
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  Speaker 3: by the ruling parties, and a lack of opportunity in
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  Speaker 3: their countries. Around 56% of Nepal's population is under 30
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  Speaker 3: years old, according to its 2021 census, which is mind-blowing.
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  Speaker 3: I was like, wow, that's a huge chunk of people
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  Speaker 3: to be under 30.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And I love to see it's changing with them.
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  Speaker 3: And though it could be considered a success, Bom has
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  Speaker 3: talked about how it was a conflicting movement as some
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  Speaker 3: of her friends and protesters were injured or killed. So
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  Speaker 3: she told El Paso, we lost many friends at the protests.
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  Speaker 3: We were full of rage and frustration, and suddenly there
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  Speaker 3: was this vacuum of power. Our democracy was under threat.
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  Speaker 3: At the moment, we thought, now it is our responsibility
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  Speaker 3: to step forward and lead. So among the articles that
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  Speaker 3: you read, you will see that at the beginning, like
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  Speaker 3: many of the protests, it was peaceful. It began peaceful.
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  Speaker 3: They had intentions of remaining peaceful. They were trying to
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  Speaker 3: use their rights and their voices. But a lot of
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  Speaker 3: the times, law enforcement come out swinging and essentially are
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  Speaker 3: shooting at and killing many of the protesters, which made
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  Speaker 3: it very bloody and very violent. And I know a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the leaders, like Baum, was calling for peace
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  Speaker 3: and calling for calm and asking their own people to
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  Speaker 3: be calm, but at the same time understood they had
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  Speaker 3: to defend themselves, especially when they weren't.
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  Speaker 2: Armed, and most of them weren't.
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  Speaker 3: So it's a devastating moment, but it's one of those
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  Speaker 3: things that sometimes It takes bloodshed for things to change,
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  Speaker 3: and this is kind of what it came down to.
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  Speaker 3: And after the chaos and the deaths of many, more
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  Speaker 3: than 2,000 were injured, there's been a lot of changes
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  Speaker 3: within the Gen Z movement.
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  Speaker 2: So back to that El Paz article.
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  Speaker 3: The Gen Z movement, explains Baum, still exists, but it
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  Speaker 3: has divided into different missions. Some work with the ruling
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  Speaker 3: party in the ministries or with the prime minister. Others,
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  Speaker 3: like her, remain in the streets, monitoring the new administration.
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  Speaker 3: In Nepal, civil society is weak.
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  Speaker 2: She explains. Generation Z. So they are constantly watching.
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  Speaker 3: Since the horrible flooding that has happened in Nepal, she
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  Speaker 3: has come out in conversation and understanding that her activism
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  Speaker 3: has absolutely merged with climate change activism as well. And again,
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  Speaker 3: she is no stranger in the intersectionality of it all
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  Speaker 3: and knowing that it's about women's rights, it's about feminism,
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  Speaker 3: it's about climate change, it's about just humanitarian rights in general.
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  Speaker 3: So she has come out in conversations about what that
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  Speaker 3: looks like today. That is changing, ever changing, obviously, as
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  Speaker 3: she is a part of this movement. It's amazing to
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  Speaker 3: see the younger generations. I think this is what we
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  Speaker 3: had in conversations before that, yes, as so many bad
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  Speaker 3: things are happen, the younger generations are also rising to
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  Speaker 3: make change.
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  Speaker 2: And we love to see it.
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  Speaker 3: And again, also why social media has become such a
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  Speaker 3: tool and why we are seeing governments trying to take
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  Speaker 3: control of platforms because they are trying to control the
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  Speaker 3: narratives once again.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And it's really cool to see when a
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  Speaker 1: movement like this inspires other movements or helps inform other movements.
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  Speaker 1: We always like when we get to see that. So
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  Speaker 1: As always, listeners, if you have anyone we should highlight
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: in this series, mini-series, please let us know if you
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: have any suggestions. You can write to us. Our email
• 11:27
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• 11:33
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• 11:39
  Speaker 1: as always, to our super producer, Rima, and our executive producer, Maya.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 11:44
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• 11:46
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