Erste Präsidentin Indiens sichert Frauen festen Teil der Parlamentsitze zu

Am anderen Ende der Welt wird die Demokratie sogar noch mehr dem Feminismus geopfert als hierzulande:

India's new Congress-led coalition government is to press for a radical new law to reserve a third of the elected seats in parliament and in state legislatures for women.

The government has also pledged to introduce a bill which will set aside half the seats in elected village councils and city municipalities for women. At present only a third of the seats in village councils are kept exclusively for women.

India's first woman president, Pratibha Patil, announced the ground-breaking steps at the opening session of the new parliament in Delhi today. She also promised on behalf of prime minister Manmohan Singh's re-elected government that more women would be employed by the central government.

A National Mission on Empowerment of Women will also be set up to implement "women-centred" welfare programmes.

"My government will initiate steps within the next hundred days on these measures," she said.

Der britische Guardian berichtet.

(Pratibha Patil? War das nicht eine Figur bei "Harry Potter"?)

Nachtrag vom nächsten Nachmittag: Wie mir gerade ein Leser mailte, gibt es bei "Harry Potter" die offenbar indischstämmigen Zwillingsschwestern Parvati und Padma Patil.