Word: pokhrel
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When Durga Pokhrel was born in a small mountain village in Nepal, astrologers foretold that if she were born female, she would be as strong as a son. Appropriately named after the Hindu goddess of power, Durga went on to pursue a turbulent career as teacher, journalist and democratic and human rights activist in Nepal, during which her strength and constancy were severely tested. Contrary to the wishes of her conservative Hindu family, she became a scholar and university lecturer, but was blacklisted by the government for her political activities and eventually expelled from the university where she taught...
Through it all, Pokhrel kept her faith in herself and her will to live, and made devoted friends in prison while her friends outside worked to set her free. She became an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience and was eventually released by the order of the king of Nepal. However, fearing future and possibly fatal persecution, she quietly fled to the U.S., where she attended Harvard's Kennedy School of Government as a Mason Fellow, and received an M.P.A. Later she received a Doctorate of Education from the Graduate School of Education...