Yogmaya Neupane

Who was Yogmaya Neupane?

Yogmaya Neupane was a Nepalese religious leader, women's rights activist and poet, who founded the first organization of Nepali women, the Nari Samiti for Women's Rights in 1918.

Neupane was born in 1860 in Dingla, Bhojpur District, Nepal. She entered into an arranged marriage at an early age, and was widowed within three years. Upon returning to her maternal home she was accused by her in laws of mariticide.

After a few years, she remarried and left for Assam in India. She returned to Nepal with her daughter in 1903 and became involved in various religious activities. She also protested against injustice, corruption and blasphemes through the medium of hymns, religious songs and poems.

In time Neupane attracted over 2,000 followers and organized them into the country's first Nari Samiti. The committee constituted under the leadership of Neupane concentrated its activities against the exploitation of women in the name of religion and tradition, including widow marriage, child marriage and polygamy. Within a few years of its activity, the committee submitted a 24-point petition of demands stating the problems facing women to Rana Prime Minister, Chandra Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, who, in 1920, abolished the Nepalese practice of Sati.