Nepal elects Bidhya Devi Bhandari as its first female president

Catherine Garcia, The Week US's avatar
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Bidhya Devi Bhandari.
(Image credit: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images)

Bidhya Devi Bhandari, a women's rights activist, has been elected the first female president of Nepal.

She is the second person to serve in the mostly ceremonial role since Nepal abolished the monarchy in 2008. The BBC's South Asia editor, Charles Haviland, says the 54-year-old is a longtime political activist in a male-dominated society, and plans to champion minority and women's rights. She is the vice-chairwoman of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) and was defense minister from 2009 to 2011.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.