Karisma Karki

Karisma Karki is a Nepali Olympian swimmer. She has won 50 gold medals and numerous other awards since she started professional swimming. The 20-year-old participated in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Even today when people see me competing they don’t think it’s good that I wear a swimsuit, because I show my body.

Meena Chaudhary

Meena Chaudhary is Nepal's first female Mahout, or elephant rider. She comes from an illiterate and poor family and now she has become their main source of financial support.

I had no education and no job so I decided to become a Mahout. At the beginning it was very hard because I had never been to the jungle before. There are other women who now also want to become Mahouts.

Bhumika Shrestha

Bhumika Shrestha is the first officially transgendered member of the Nepali Congress, a major political party. She is also a member of the Blue Diamond Society, the first organization working for sexual minorities.

I was born as a baby boy and everybody in my family was happy about me. Even though society didn’t accept me, my family did. It was clear from the beginning the way I felt. We don’t have a law in Nepal that allow us to marry other people. I could not do it anyway because if I get marriage I would have to be under a man and I like to be in control of my life.

Charimaya Tamang

Charimaya Tamang is the founding member of Shakti Samuah.,a NGO working to combat trafficking. Rescued from brothel house in India in 1991, she was the first woman to declare publicly that she was trafficked. She was awarded the 2011 Hero Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery Award.

I was 16 years old when I was trafficked. It took me a long time to accept that I was trapped. I was mentally tortured and very frustrated.

Women are still in risk of being trafficked, suffered sexual abuse and domestic violence. Women should really protect themselves. There are no problems without solutions.

Lucky Chhetri

Lucky Chhetri is the founder at 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking company and director at Empowering Women of Nepal. She is also the first Nepali woman to be a mountaineer guide.

Trekking was a male dominated profession. People didn’t like that their boss was a woman. Now the situation has changed and people recognize our work. Many people have improved their lives. Even beauty pageant contestants now ask me to become trekking guides.

Ani Choying Dolma

Ani Choying Dolma is a world-renowned singer who is also a nun. She runs the Nuns Welfare Foundation of Nepal (NWF), a non-profit organization promoting the education and welfare of Buddhist nuns.

Because of the ignorance in our society I decided to become a nun. In that way I could avoid suffering and unpleasant things.

My singing makes people happy and brings them pleasure. For me this it is not only about singing, but also that human values are respected. Good is normal. Bad it is not.

Kiran Bajracharya

instructed self-defense training for over 1000 police officers and is trying to change the police behavior towards women and children in Nepal. She also has done training in South Africa for the Juvenile Justice System.

As a woman I didn’t get a chance to be promoted as a leader.

I am trying to change the police behavior towards women and children. I would like to give to women the right to say NO. They should learn how to say NO. That is why I think they should learn self-defence.

Pema Sherpa

Pema Sherpa is the first midwife in the world to regularly use the Sono Site portable ultrasound and has crisscrossed the high-mountain Solukhumbu district, traveling on foot from village to village to deliver much-needed prenatal care and detect complications so mothers can seek hospital deliver if necessary.

In our sherpa culture women are higher than men in the community.

I do a lot of counseling with families and still some men treat women as inferior.

Now husbands are coming with their wives in the delivery room so that they can also experience how painful the process is.

Jhamak Ghimire

Jhamak Ghimire is a poet who writes with her left foot, having been born with cerebral palsy. She had been awarded with Nepal’s most prestigious literary prize, the Madan Puraskar, for her autobiography Jiwan Kanda Ki Phul.

Power is something that comes from within. I am powerful. I started writing at 7 or 8 years old. At 16 I started writing poems, essays, stories, articles.

Traditions are regularly made by people. If those traditions have positive impact on people then I accept them, otherwise I don’t. There are many bad traditions in Nepal still.

Sareena Rai

Sareena Rai is the lead singer of punk music group “Rai ko Ris”. Sareena uses her music to advocate for the rights of the women in Nepal. She is also a music teacher in her community and she is currently teaching Jeet Kune Do, a martial art’s technique used by actor Bruce Lee used for self-defense.

People who don’t fit in anywhere end up in punk. I sing about sexual abuse, anarchism, caste discrimination, gender identity…etc.

I wish that sexual assault/rape in women stops, that’s what I want. But it seems that as long as there are men it won’t stop. We need more feminists in spirit to make the world a better place to live.

Perhaps I’ll be burnt like a witch one day!

Ashmina Ranjit

Ashmina Ranjit is a well-known name in the Nepali contemporary arts for her groundbreaking innovations of live art performance along with video installations, painting, drawings and sound. Her themes comprise mostly of social political issues and gender issues.

I always wanted to fly so I thought I should became a pilot. When I went for school I realized that my desire to fly was not physical, but more spiritual, I wanted to find who I was.

Usually people think of art as an object, but for me it is more about the process. I can’t separate art and myself because it is in my everyday.

Education should be in our everyday, as part of life. The critical thinking should not be separated, it should be in our practical life.

Devi Sunawar

Devi Sunawar is the first woman to bring her 15-year-old daughter’s murder case to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her case has been well-documented in the award-winning documentary The Sari Soldiers.

I was 21 when I gave birth to Maina. Maina was 15 and half years old when she was killed. I am very angry at the perpetrator of her death. I stand up and fight for the rights of women. I used to say that mothers do nothing wrong for giving birth to daughters and they should not be blamed.

Indira Ranamagar

Indira Ranamagar set up Prisoners Assistance Nepal (PA Nepal), to help care for children whose parents were in prison. She has been the only woman working inside prisons in Nepal for the last 20 years.

I left the village when I was very young. I broke barriers and it was very unusual.

20 years ago nobody entered a prison, I opened the door. Even if children committed little crimes I supported them because they deserved a second oportunity.

The Government should provide a proper provision for children with families who have been convicted to have a chance and not keep them in prison.

Gita Rasaili

Gita Rasaili is a victim of the violence during the war. The Nepal Army murdered Gita’s brother and sister. She is helping victims of the violence all over Nepal.

My sister got raped and killed and also my brother as a revenge for feeding the Maoists- according to the perpetrators, the Nepali Army.

My mother and grandmother were left in a very bad state and my brothers were very scared. So I had to fight for them. I also want to get justice for other families that have been victims of the war.

Maiya Bisunkhe

Maiya Bisunkhe was born without her right hand and her childhood was very difficult having to beg for her living and her brother’s. She has become today a very promising sprinter who has participated in the Under 16 Championship held in Japan, the Asian Para Game held in China and the Para Olympics, 2012 held in London.

I don’t remember my mother’s face. I had to face many struggles on my own when I was little because my father was sick and my brother small.

I ran my first marathon when I was 13 or 14 years old. I have participated in many competitions since then. In 2012 I went to London for the Para Olympics.

Mohna Ansari

Mohna Ansari is the first Muslim advocate working with the National Women’s Commission. She is a highly-respected attorney at law working in partnership with various national and international organizations.

Everyday women are beaten in my surroundings, women are not respected in their families, they are treated like animals, they have not voice, not choice.

The law is good in Nepal but it is not applied. Now many women are asking for divorce because they are facing domestic violence.

Mandira Sharma

Mandira Sharma is the winner of a Human Rights Watch Defender Award. She helped found Advocacy Forum, a Nepali NGO that has played a crucial role in defending the rights of Nepali people caught in the brutal civil war between Maoist insurgents and the Nepali government. Mandira has focused on achieving accountability for abuses committed by both sides during the fighting.

The people in power are untouchables. You always have to do extra work to get the same things that men would get. Everyone should be equal before the law.

We always challenge impunity though we will never be able to enjoy our rights.. If you are a victim of torture, rape, it’s very difficult to get justice. I think that things will change and that’s what we are working for.

Sony Rana

Sony Rana is the first Nepali female pilot. She works for Nepal Airlines.

People used to get shocked to see a woman landing a plane in their fields.

Fortunately there was no discrimination in my field. In aviation you have to have be perfect and not make any distinctions.

I would like to give education for every little kid and every women of Nepal.