Chitwan, June 25 -- Lalkumari Silwal was only 25 when her husband, a policeman, was killed during the 1996-2006 Maoist insurgency. Despite being widowed at a young age, she raised her two children with courage and dignity. But what kept her going, she recalls, were her husband's final words before his death: "Keep your own surname. Raise our children equally-never differentiate between a son and a daughter."

Two decades on, her husband's surname-Thapaliya-remains absent from her identity. She raised her children as Silwals, instilling in them equality and resilience. But justice, she says, has never arrived. "So much has changed-the war ended, governments changed, former enemies now share power-but we, the ones who lost everything, are s...