PASHUPATI, Nepal -- In 1980, when Hari Maya Kuinkel was 20 and pregnant for the third time in her arranged marriage, the shaman of her village in eastern Nepal diagnosed the tingling in her feet as possession by "new" spirits. It wasn't. By the time leprosy patches appeared on her face her alcoholic husband had already disappeared.
Her village forbade her from taking water from the village well. Neighbors forbade their children from playing with hers. Unscrupulous men extorted first Hari Maya's land, then her house.
She fled to her in-laws, who allowed her to stay in the barn, but forced her to wander and beg for food. Finally, to get medical help, she boarded a bus with her children for Katmandu, wrapping herself in shawls to hide her condition.