WUNRN
NEPAL - WOMEN
POLITICIANS' POWER LIMITED BY PATRIARCHY
Women occupy 33% of seats in parliament but their influence on
Nepalese Hindu
devotees offer prayers at Mata Tirtha, southwest of
After two
years of intense wrangling and political deadlock, the extended deadline for
passing Nepal's new constitution is looming,
with a decision expected on 28 May.
In 2006, a decade of fighting
came to an end when
However, despite women occupying
33% of the seats in the CA, their progress in contributing to the
constitution-building progress has been hindered by a culture of patriarchy in
which female politicians continue to be marginalised.
This inherent patriarchy is
reflected in the organisational structure of the various political parties and
government bodies. The present government led by Jhalanath Khanal, leader of
the Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), has just
five women ministers out of a total of 43.
Another of the main parties, the
Nepali Congress Party - Central Working Committee (NC-CWC), has only 14 women
among its 65 members. In the CPN-UML's 115-member central committee, there are
18 women, and only four women are members of its 39-member politburo. The
central committee of the largest party, the United Communist Party of Nepal
(Maoist), includes just 12 women among its 148 members, and there are just two
female representatives within the 45-member politburo.
According to female politicians,
the marginalisation of women in the political sphere reflects entrenched
patriarchal attitudes towards them. Suprabha Ghimire, of the NC, believes that
Nepalese society is still reluctant to accept women as leaders. "Society
looks up to men as born leaders. They are not eager to welcome women in these
roles," she says.
Sarita Giri, leader of the Nepal
Sadbhavana Party, believes women do have more influence in smaller parties such
as hers, but they face obstacles in the decision-making and
constitution-building processes at the national level. Women lack opportunities
to express themselves during parliamentary and plenary discussions, she says.
"Whenever we raise an issue
inside the CA, senior leaders walk out of the hall without bothering to listen
to us. Even the media ignores the issues that women raise," says Savitra
Bhusal, from the CPN-UML. Giri adds: "Women haven't been given due
importance in the constitution-building process."
In
Bhusal highlights chaupadi
pratha, the practice of isolating women who are menstruating, as an
example of this discrimination. At its most extreme, rural women may be forced
to sleep in animal sheds during menstruation. She says the "backward"
attitute that menstruating women are somehow "polluted" persists
among people in both urban and rural communities, and regardless of their
levels of education.
She says the "influence of a
feudalistic, patriarchal society" is evident within the CPN-UML.
How to tackle such entrenched
perspectives is a matter of considerable debate. Bhusal wants grassroots action
while Ghimire believes such attitudes are perpetuated by illiteracy, which can
only be tackled over time with better education. "One must promote female
education through affirmative action policies," says Ghimire, adding that
these are key issues of the NC manifesto.
Clearly, it is a vicious circle:
women are marginalised in politics because they are considered inferior within
society, and discrimination against them continues because of failures at
policy level.
The situation has been further
complicated by the difficulties in implementing laws during the transitional
political phase, Bhusal argues. She says a number of discriminatory laws
affecting women need to be changed.
Anti-dowry and domestic violence
laws remain poorly implemented and legislation has been affected by the
political stagnancy. For effective reform to take place, changes at the
constitutional and policy levels need to trickle down.
Nevertheless, many Nepalese women
are voicing their concerns. In 2006, no women were selected for the six-member
constitution drafting committee but this was revised after women lobbied and
held demonstrations. On 28 May last year, women members of the CA came together
to protest against all the parties that were demanding an agreement on the
extension of the CA's term.
At the grassroots level, too,
women are speaking out. But, says Madhu Shrestha, president of the Rural
Women's Network
"In practice," she
says, "women MPs do not represent the grassroots women population. Most of
them are either wives, or sisters or relatives of the male leaders of political
parties." The fact that the minister for women, children and social
welfare is a man speaks volumes.
A major problem for women is lack
of self-confidence, says Uma Bhandari, a lecturer at
Ruwon's holistic approach also
covers leadership training in the rural district of Sindhuli, teaching women
how to speak confidently in front of a group and how to express thoughts and
opinions. As well as providing health and hygiene awareness classes, Ruwon
provides practical knowledge through workshops on marriage registration and
political rights, to enable women to understand what their rights are and give
them the confidence to assert them.
However, in
Amnesty has reported not only on
the vulnerability of women activists to violence, but on police complicity in
perpetuating discrimination when women speak out. The organisation's research
suggests that, instead of investigating incidents of violence, police sometimes
coerce women into attending traditional community courts, where bribes and the
perceived lack of importance of the crime often prevent any real justice.
Despite the dangers and obstacles
they face, a minority of women aren't afraid to speak out and challenge social
norms. At the political level, too, "the clouds have a silver
lining", says Pampha Bhusal, a member of the United Community Party of
Nepal - Maoist (UCPN-M). She is hopeful that the new statute will build on the
advances made for women, including the Women's Right's Bill, in the interim
constitution.
Yet as the constitution-building
process drags on, with no reliable evidence that a consensus will be reached by
the May deadline, the perspectives of Nepal's women continue to be represented
by a few women in what continues to be an "old boy's club", and the
real progress appears to be occurring outside the political arena.