Nepal lifts ban on women working in Gulf countries

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KATHMANDU, Dec 9 (AFP): Nepal has lifted a ban on women travelling to Gulf countries to work and introduced new rules designed to protect them, the employment ministry said yesterday.
Thousands of people leave impoverished Nepal every year to seek work abroad, mostly travelling to Malaysia and the Gulf to take up menial jobs in cleaning or construction.
Women have officially been barred from going to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar since 1998, when the suicide of a Nepalese domestic worker who had been abused in Kuwait created a national scandal.