The New Nation - Internet Edition

DU Correspondent

The democratic rights and empowerment of women of Nepal is yet to be ensured though the women of the country were directly affected by prolonged political turmoil and involved in the struggle to establish democracy, Dr Bina Pradhan, a gender, population and development specialist of Nepal said here yesterday.

She also said the commitments given to the Nepalese women by the Maoists are yet to be fufilled by the Maoist backed government.

Dr Bina, who is also the adviser to the National Planning Commission and Social Development Division of Nepal, was delivering a lecture on "Women and People's War in Nepal" as key speaker at Dhaka University (DU).

Department of Women and Gender Studies of DU organised the lecture as part of its resource person lecture series, held at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Bhaban at DU.

Dr Bina at the function presented a slide presentation on the lecture's topic focusing the recently released conflict of Nepal, pre and post-conflict position of women and experiences of women during the conflict.

Dr Bina in her speech stressed the need for bringing about some planned structural changes in the society and also in different democratic bodies in Nepal to ensure democratic rights of people.

Founding chair of the department Prof Najma Chowdhury, incumbent chair Ayesha Banu, Executive Director of Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB), Meghna Guha Thakurata, a good number of teachers and students of the department and representatives from different NGOs were present at the ceremony.