The Constituent Assembly of Nepal: An Agenda for Women - CAPWIP

International IDEA - The Constituent Assembly of Nepal: An Agenda for WomenWhat are the challenges that arelikely to face women in theConstituent Assembly?Challenges faced by women are likely to include their own lack of experience(in some but by no means all cases), the somewhat unreceptive attitude ofsome men members to what women have to say, the expectations of theirparties that they follow the party line, the expectation of other communities towhich they belong that their primary role in the CA is to represent thosecommunities, and an expectation that women will be interested only inwomen's issues and will show no independence of mind on other issues.Women are likely to face some hostility from men members. It is clear that many men were unhappy about thespecial quotas for women. In addition, a general social expectation that women know their place, even if diminishing,may make the task of speaking out and being effective especially hard for women. Many women will rise abovesuch hostility, and many will have the necessary experience to do so. But for many, the effort required will be greaterthan for their male counterparts.All the non-traditional members of the Constituent Assembly (Dalits and Janajatis, as well as women) will facesomething of a tussle between party and community loyalties. Parties may expect them to toe the line. Hopefully,parties will not try to suppress the inclusion issues-after all, this was the clear mandate of the Jana Andolan. But forthe biggest parties, the hierarchy is still largely Brahmin.For women, there is an additional issue--not just the pull of party but the pull of community. It has been said thatmembers of the Interim Constitution Drafting Committee tended to put community before gender. For a Dalitwoman, for example, it may not be easy to identify with the concerns of Brahmin and Chhetri women.There may be an expectation in some quarters that women will only be interested in women's issues, and be happyto be active only on those issues (perhaps only being involved in committees focussing on women's issues).21