By SELENA ESTRADA
Student Writer
Nepal has recently replaced former president, Ram Baran Yadav with their first female president, Bidhya Devi Bhandari. Bhandari won the election by 113 votes, defeating Kul Bahadur Gurung.
Bhandari was the former vice president of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leminist (CPN-UML) and has been involved with politics since a young age. She is the widow of a well-known veteran communist leader, Madan Bhandari, who died in a car accident in 1993.
28 million is approximately the population of Nepal, and women take up more than half of this population, yet women are not treated equally. Nepalese women have struggled for equality for a while, and now that Bhandari has been elected President, there is high hope for women’s equality in Nepal.
Recently, a new constitution has been adopted in Nepal, and within it is the provision of citizenship through the mother’s name. Bhandari has spoken about being against this provision and has been criticized over this speaking against it.
Teris Dangol, a senior at NWOSU and an international student from Kathmandu, Nepal says, “I think it’s cool that we have a female president.”
Bhandari as the new head of state will affect not only Nepal, but also all of South Asia, according to Xinhuanet.