Kamala Thapa, of Bakrang, Gorkha District, was married and a mother by age 19. As her baby daughter was tottering around their village home and speaking her first words, tragic events halfway around the world changed both mother and daughter’s lives forever. In late August 2004, militants from the Ansar Al-Sunna terrorist group kidnapped and executed 12 Nepali migrant workers in Iraq. Among them was Kamala’s husband, Jit Bahadur.

Kamala’s daughter, who was 22 months old when her father was killed, is now a Class 11 student in Kathmandu. Sixteen years after losing her husband, Kamala says, “When I hear about Nepalis today who continue to go to work in conflict zones like Iraq, and they get injured or killed in attacks there, the memories come back. I can’t read those types of news stories–I just skim the headlines.”

The 2004 murders were seared into Nepal’s national memory by a video that went viral through shared VCDs, memory cards, and public screenings. (In those days, YouTube was not yet widespread.) A government investigation committee formed soon after the murders found that the Kathmandu-based Moonlight Manpower Company had tricked the men into going to Iraq, promising jobs in Jordan instead.

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