Kathmandu, June 16 -- She can bring life into the world. Yet, when life ends, she's deemed unfit to perform the very rites that honour it.

A son and a daughter may be born from the same womb and raised by the same mother, yet when that mother dies, only the son is seen as qualified to honour her through 'shraddha' (ritual oblation).

What happens when there's no son? Well, society would still rather search for any available male (distant relative or a hired priest) than allow her daughter to do it.

In many communities across Nepal, it is still believed that a daughter performing her parents' funeral rites will rob them of punya (virtue/ merit).

Experts say this inequality speaks to a deep identity crisis that women and girls in Nepali ...