
By Bhadra Sharma and Kai Schultz
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Parbati Bogati knew what to do when her period came.
Ms. Bogati, 21, sequestered herself in an abandoned house, in keeping with a centuries-old taboo that declares menstruating women impure, officials from her area in rural western Nepal said.
As the temperature dropped below freezing on Wednesday evening, she tried to keep warm, apparently burning wood and clothing.
By the next morning, her legs were charred and she was dead.