Feature: Nepal praises female figureheads as major achievement of gender equity goal

Gender equality is a hot topic across the globe and as with every year the issue in Nepal hits the headlines with news stories focusing on women's empowerment on the occasion of the 106th International Women's Day.

But while women around the world raised their voices on Tuesday with pledges for a 2030 agenda for sustainable development, Nepal, one of the least developed countries, celebrated the day by praising the recent achievements gained in terms of gender equity in the country and women's rights.

On the day when United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his message "Let us devote solid funding, courageous advocacy and unbending political will to achieving gender equality around the world. There is no greater investment in our common future", Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said here in Kathmandu, "Today, Nepal's state head and speaker of parliament are women. It is the major accomplishment of the new constitution and a result of many long years of movements and struggles for women's rights."

A few months ago, Nepal elected Bidhya Devi Bhandari as the first female president of the Himalayan country, breaking the boundaries of stereotypes and gender roles. This step is regarded by many as a major achievement for women in the quake-ravaged country.

"Women are leading major public institutions in Nepal at present. These achievements are exemplary and historic. However, this doesn't mean that women have got everything now. There are still many things to be done to ensure women's participation in constitutional, legal and bureaucratic public offices," President Bhandari told Xinhua exclusively on Monday.

Nepal is the same country where menstruating women are still compelled to live in sheds in the far-western region and daughters-in-laws are burnt to death in the southern plains of the country for not bringing enough dowries from their maternal home.

However, such heinous social evils are being abolished and things are expected to change further as the new constitution of the country, promulgated in September last year, has ensured fundamental rights to women with equal access and opportunities.

As per the new context and advancement drive, women are now more visible in different sectors including in politics and business, as with other South Asian countries.

However, rural Nepalese women still have a long road ahead to acquire such equitable rights, and remain confined to kitchens, raising children and domestic chores.

President Bhandari, 54, who herself was born in a rural village in the eastern district of Bhojpur, told Xinhua "Women's economic status is still not satisfactory as their access to education is not as encouraging as expected."

Today, the world is moving ahead to tackle such issues as economic underperformance, overpopulation and poverty.

Here in Nepal, women are just coming to understand the significance of female achievement with the appointment of the first female president, speaker and chief justice in the near future.

"I feel glad to see an end to gender discrimination. It is a matter of pride that the new constitution has provisions for citizenship through the name of fathers or mothers, equal wages on the basis of gender and social security, equal rights on ancestral property, safe motherhood and reproduction rights, among others," Nepal's first female speaker, Onsari Gharti Magar, told Xinhua exclusively.

Though Nepal's parliament has already ensured the 33 percent representation of women in all state organs, which is the highest in the whole of Asia, the policy target is yet to be fully implemented.

Women's rights activists in Nepal have been raising their voices for necessary amendments in the new constitution, which has some debatable issues pertaining to citizenship through mothers and sexual and reproductive rights.

"The constitution has lots of pluses with a few minuses. There are a few issues which still need to be amended as they are not in favor of women. But, I feel the constitution has definitely opened the door," Banada Rana, a prominent women's rights activist and a candidate for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women,' told Xinhua.

It is welcoming that responsiveness has increased, debates are happening, policies are being made toward the gender equity issue in the country.

However, until and unless education is kept as a top priority, Nepalese women will still need to struggle along the way to be at the frontier in every sector in the country. Endit