How online abuse and patriarchy hold back women in the Nepal election

This story has been co-published with Kalam Weekly.ON 7 FEBRUARY, Nisha Adhikari, a first-past-the-post (FPTP) candidate in Nepal’s 2026 general election from the Gatisheel Loktantrik Party, posted a Twitter thread detailing the kinds of derogatory messages and comments she had been receiving on social media. Alongside a collage of sexist and often sexualised remarks, Adhikari shared her thoughts:.“The hateful and derogatory words used against female candidates do not reflect the status of women; rather, they mirror the deeply rooted misogynistic mindset in our society. Such language is not disagreement. This is not debate. It is violence born out of power and fear, aimed at driving women out of public life, making them afraid, and silencing them. These comments are not just directed at me; they target all women in politics, in leadership, who dare to speak out.”.Adhikari’s experience is not unique; it is shared by most women candidates in this election, with voting due on 5 March. Election campaigning has largely moved online, but so has abuse and harassment directed at women candidates, who now contend with sexualised hate speech, threats of sexual violence and derogatory comments targeting their gender, caste, bodies and professions. While social media has allowed candidates – at least those of certain class and caste backgrounds – to reach a broader audience across the country, the same technology has also provided unscrupulous actors with the means to abuse, harass and intimidate women candidates using their gender as the primary vector of attack. Such comments can be deeply demoralising for women candidates, who are already confronting structural barriers to campaigning, including a comparative lack of social and financial capital and deep-rooted patriarchal perceptions that still see politics as a primarily male arena..These paradigms are reflected in the kinds of comments often left under social media posts by women candidates. Commenters tell women to “stay home”, “get married” or “have children” instead of engaging in politics. Some go as far as to say that “women belong in the kitchen”. Comments also escalate into remarks about caste, body type, clothing choices and appearance. In extreme cases, women face threats of sexual violence. Taken as a whole, such comments create a hostile and unwelcoming space for women candidates, who are already in the minority among direct election candidates..The institutional stakes of Nepal’s post-uprising election.Out of the 3484 total candidates contesting direct parliamentary seats in this election, only 395 are women. This means that, despite constituting 50 percent of the electorate, women make up just 11 percent of direct electoral candidates. With so few women contesting direct elections, even fewer will ultimately be elected..Since Nepal introduced a requirement in 2008 that 33 percent of parliamentary seats be filled by women, the country has been credited with having one of the highest rates of women’s representation in national parliaments in Asia. But this rate of representation masks other unpleasant truths. To meet the constitutional requirement of 33 percent women’s representation, Nepal’s parties bring more women into parliament through proportional representation, which runs alongside FPTP elections, with 110 of a total 275 parliamentary seats reserved for this system. The dominant perception in this two-tier setup is that directly elected parliamentarians are politically stronger and more capable, while proportional representatives are just there to meet quota requirements. Ultimately, this means that representatives of disadvantaged groups are left reliant on proportional representation to gain meaningful legislative presence. Women, but also oppressed castes, marginalised ethnicities and religious minorities, often end up being delegitimised, with this perception overriding their contributions to an inclusive political process..Add to this the kinds of online abuse routinely directed at women candidates, and the playing field of Nepali politics becomes even more skewed. Nepal’s latest election reveals the stark disparities they face..TO ASSESS the volume and severity of online gender-based violence against women candidates, Kalam Weekly monitored the social media posts of eight prominent women candidates from across multiple parties – Nisha Adhikari, Renu Dahal (Nepali Communist Party), Ranju Darshana (Rastriya Swatantra Party), Nisha Dangi (Rastriya Swatantra Party), Bina Magar (Nepali Communist Party), Nanu Bastola (Nepali Congress), Juli Kumari Mahato (CPN-UML) and Mahalaxmi Upadhyay (Nepali Congress) – from the beginning of January to mid-February. We analysed 753 posts by these candidates on Facebook and X (Twitter), which generated 92,694 comments in response. We looked primarily for hate speech, divided into five different categories – gendered or sexist comments, targeted misinformation or disinformation, character assassination, sexualised harassment and violent threats..We found that hate speech was relatively rare – 346 of the 92,694 comments could be categorised as such – but that is not to discount the severity or impact of the specific kinds of abuse and language deployed against women candidates. Out of the 346 comments classified as hate speech, 234 were gendered or sexist; 50 constituted misinformation or disinformation; 49 involved character assassination; 10 amounted to sexualised harassment; and four were violent threats. The hostility rarely targeted candidates’ policies or political positions, with over 60 percent of hate speech directed at their gender. The abuse, when it appeared, was explicitly gendered. Instances of sexualised harassment and violent threats are especially concerning, as they show the hostility crossing into outright intimidation and degradation..A correlation can be drawn between fame and hate. Three women – Renu Dahal, Ranju Darshana and Nisha Adhikari – received significantly more hate speech than the other candidates; they also have larger social media followings than the other five. Each of the three has a claim to fame: Renu Dahal is the former mayor of Bharatpur Municipality and the daughter of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a former prime minister and the country’s main Maoist politician; Ranju Darshana has been contesting elections since she first ran for mayor of Kathmandu at the age of 21; and Nisha Adhikari is a popular actor and model. Our monitoring offers a snapshot of the abuse and harassment women candidates face online, but it was neither comprehensive nor absolutely rigorous. There are thus limitations to our findings. We did not look at many other social media platforms, including TikTok, which is massively popular in Nepal and has higher rates of engagement than Facebook and X, but is more difficult to monitor..Our sample of women candidates was also relatively narrow and not diverse enough. Most of those surveyed were from the Khas-Arya community, Nepal’s most dominant elite group, whereas research has shown that women with intersectional and marginalised identities – in the context of Nepal, this includes Dalits, indigenous Janajatis, Madhesis and others – are more likely to face gender-based violence both online and offline. UN Women has described this succinctly: digital violence mirrors offline inequalities.OUR LIMITED RESEARCH supports findings from the intergovernmental organisation International IDEA that online attacks against female politicians “revolve around fabricated personal misconduct, which fuels objectification, reinforces harmful stereotypes and undermines women’s credibility.” It also confirms broad patterns of gender-based violence and harassment against women in politics in Nepal and across Southasia..The saga of C K Raut and the Madhesh’s struggle for justice in Nepal.While our monitoring focused on women candidates before the election, similar kinds of abuse and harassment typically continue after women are elected to office. A 2022 report by UN Women found that over 30 percent of 648 locally elected women representatives in Nepal reported experiencing some form of violence related to their political activity. Women of marginalised identities – including Dalits, as well as single or separated women – often reported the highest levels of harassment. A key insight from the report is that “simply exercising political power is itself a trigger” for abuse and harassment. Women candidates in the 2026 Nepal election are doing just that – exercising their political power.Anecdotal evidence from past years also shows how gender is weaponised to attack and belittle women politicians. In 2023, Sumana Shrestha, a parliamentarian from the Rastriya Swatantra Party, was repeatedly criticised on social media and in the mainstream media for her choice of clothing. On one occasion, it was for wearing jeans with a plain top; on another, for wearing a skirt. In both instances, her clothing was deemed “unbecoming” for parliament. Around the same time, Amresh Kumar Singh, an independent legislator, disrobed in parliament – yet he received far less criticism than Shrestha did..Women with political ambitions were being targeted for their identities even before election campaigning began. After the Gen Z protests in September that brought down Nepal’s previous government, Sushila Karki, who stepped in as the head of an interim administration, considered two women for induction into her cabinet: Sangeeta Mishra and Tashi Lhazom. Both women became targets of online abuse, with many questioning their nationality and Nepali identity. Mishra was targeted as a naturalised Nepali citizen of Madhesi identity; the Madhesh region, in the country’s south, has historically faced deprivation and discrimination at the hands of the Nepali state. Lhazom, meanwhile, came under fire for her ethnic Tibetan heritage. Both were portrayed as threats to national identity and sovereignty because of who they were. Ultimately, a corruption probe against Mishra derailed her appointment as health minister. Similar corruption cases lodged against Kulman Ghising, however, did not stand in the way of his appointment as energy minister. Lhazom’s entry into the cabinet was derailed by past social media posts she had made regarding a free Tibet..The targeting of women in the public eye is not just a Nepali phenomenon; it follows worldwide trends, especially in Asia and the South Pacific. According to UN Women, “digital violence is now one of the fastest-growing forms of abuse in the region.” A 2019 Google Research paper that studied over 200 people who identified as women from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh found that they regularly encountered online abuse, primarily in the forms of cyberstalking, impersonation and the leaking of personal content. Such forms of harassment discourage women from becoming public figures by, for instance, taking part in elections.Nepal’s 2026 election is unique. It is taking place in the aftermath of a revolution that sought to break with old ways of doing politics and establish a younger, more accountable political class. But politics is not limited to the electoral sphere; it pervades all social and cultural life as well. The candidates in this election may be younger on average than ever before, but they are overwhelmingly male. Balen Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, one of the most popular new faces in Nepali politics and his party’s projected prime-ministerial candidate, has gained mass support in part thanks to his strident displays of machismo..On 8 March, just days after the election, is International Women’s Day. It will offer an occasion for urgent reflection on whether the Gen Z protests and the 2026 vote have produced meaningful gains for women in Nepali political life. The election may see voters break with old patterns of support for establishment political parties, but it does not seem likely to change the patriarchal codes baked into the Nepali psyche. The pursuit of fair political representation for women, and of an equal playing field for aspiring women leaders, is likely to remain a work in progress.