A Communist campaigner whose fight for democracy brought about the end of a 240-year Hindu monarchy in Nepal has been named as the nation’s first female President.
Bidhya Devi Bhandari,
who is largely credited with ensuring that a third of politicians in Nepal are
now women, was deputy leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist
Leninist), and had lobbied for the new constitution to require that either the
president or vice-president be a woman.
Nepal has been trying
to shift from a male-dominated society, where women are mostly limited to
working at homes or on farms, to one in which women have equal opportunities
and legal rights. As a close ally and party colleague of the Prime Minister,
Khadga Prasad Oli, Ms Bhandari had been considered the favourite for the
largely ceremonial job.
Ms Bhandari said her
election marked a first step toward assuring the new constitutional “guarantees
of equality” are fulfilled. Last week, Onsari Gharti Magar was elected as the
parliament’s first female Speaker. Ms Bhandari took up politics in her teens,
later marrying a fellow Communist, Madan Bhandari. Ms Bhandari has been a
leading political figure since 1993 when her husband was killed in a car
accident.
She led demonstrations
against the former King Gyanendra in 2006, ending his authoritarian rule and
restoring democracy.
Independent.co.uk
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