This is how Samjhana Rai, Kim Hana, who got married to a Korean, became a police officer

KATHMANDU: AUGUST 2 – Korea is like Nepal in terms of marriage. Like Nepal, in the sense that marriage is considered a social responsibility rather than a personal choice. It is easy for urbanites and rich people like Korea to get married in Korea. Rural Koreans, on the other hand, are not as comfortable marrying as young people in rural Nepal.

Many Korean girls have stopped marrying. The issue of marrying young people from rural areas has become even more distant. To address this problem, the Korean government introduced a law allowing foreigners to marry in the 1990s. Along with the law, many foreign girls married Koreans. The news that those who got married in this way suffered a lot and was tortured for a long time.

Recently, some positive news has also started coming. Even the lives of immigrant wives who have married Koreans without knowing the Korean language have changed. Samjhana Rai of Nepal is one of such changes. After a blind date arranged by her aunt 11 years ago, Samjhana agreed to marry a Korean man. The marriage was consummated within three days. That same year she moved to Korea.

Eleven years after moving to Korea, she is now a Korean police officer. She changed her name to Kim Hana. She took adopted citizenship in this name. On the same basis, she now has the opportunity to become a police officer. Speaking to the BBC, Samjhana Rai, 31, said she did not have time to think about it, even though she did not think she was as capable as her native Korean.

Samjhana Rai is currently working in the Foreign Affairs Office. She has served as a bridge between the Nepali and Korean communities.

She told the BBC that many thought she was Vietnamese because one-third of those who married in Korea were Vietnamese. She says, ‘I still remember‚ when my son was young I was about to get on the bus. One of the men told me to come to Vietnam and stay there. ‘

She says there has been a lot of support since the Korean government set up multicultural support centers in 2008. She says, ‘There is a large foreign community here and I have also met people of different natures while doing my service.’ The BBC does not mention where Samjhana Rai came to Korea from in Nepal or what her husband does. However, entering Korea as a housewife and becoming a Korean police officer and becoming a pool of Nepali and Korean communities is a great identity to remember.