Kathmandu, February 1
An open public dialogue titled “Excluded by Design: Women, Politics, and Ethical Failure” was held on Saturday in Naxal, Kathmandu. The event highlighted the continued structural exclusion of women from political decision-making in Nepal, despite constitutional commitments to inclusion.
According to a press statement, organised jointly by World of Women Magazine (WOW), Project Abhaya, and She Leads Icon, the programme aimed to bring serious public discussion to the gap between constitutional guarantees and real political practice. The organisers said women continue to be systematically sidelined from policy-making and leadership roles due to a lack of political will and weak structural commitment, not because of any lack of capacity.
Although women make up 52 per cent of Nepal’s total population, only 395 of the 3,484 candidates nominated in the recent House of Representatives election were women. The organisers described this as a serious indicator of democratic failure and argued that women’s repeated exclusion from power, resources and candidate selection processes reflects planned, structural discrimination rather than coincidence.
The dialogue brought together women leaders, representatives of political parties, Gen Z activists, civil society members, journalists and other stakeholders to question existing barriers, share experiences and discuss possible pathways for reform.
Speakers included senior political leaders and former ministers, Hisila Yami and Ashta Laxmi Shakya, former education minister Sumana Shrestha, educationist and social-political activist Reshu Aryal Dhungana, journalists Tikram Yatri and Rajendra Baniya, political leaders Ranju Darshana, Numa Limbu, Nisha Adhikari Mall and Khushbu Oli, as well as local government representatives, gender equality experts, youth activists and Gen Z advocates.
The programme was facilitated by Charu Chadha, editor at Media9, along with Ishika Pant, founder of Project Abhaya, and Pooja Koirala from She Leads Icon.
