Salma Khatun

Salma Khatun is the elected Deputy Mayor (DM) for Pokhariya Municipality in Parsa District. In this role she has mobilized the preparation and implementation of a gender responsive budget system to address the concerns of populations in her municipality.

Located on the open-border between India and Nepal, Pokhariya municipality has experienced high incidence of trafficking. She has used her platform to speak on the gendered impact of this, as well as the overall treatment of women in politics. One of the few Muslim women elected into office, Salma Khatun has pioneered the need for meaningful participation of women under the new federal law structures, and called for gender parity in the newly formed judicial committee she currently coordinates.

A journalist by training, Salma has highlighted how gendered hate speech is often an instrument used to shame women from assuming positions of power. Salma has been recently appointed as a member of the National Development Council, Nepal, and also serves as the Coordinator of the Deputy Mayors’ Club for Parsa District – a platform for knowledge sharing amongst newly elected Deputy Mayors.