The Female Mayors of Asian Countries
Virginia Raggi has been selected as Rome’s first female mayor. Raggi, a lawyer with a three-year stint as a city councilwoman, took 67.2% of the vote and she promised to work to bring “legality and transparency” to Rome’s City Hall.
According to researches, currently, fewer than 5% of the world’s mayors are women and women make up an average of just 20% local councilors worldwide.
There are several examples to share female mayors in Europe such as Ada Colau of Barcelona, Adriana Krnacova of Prague, Anne Hidalgo of Paris and Yordanka Fandakova of Sofia.
Asian countries provide female mayors and governors like in Europe.
Former Defense Minister Yuriko Koike has been elected governor of Tokyo as the first woman to lead Japan’s capital. She defeated her two top rivals and will now oversee a city of more than 13 million residents. She received more than 2.9 million votes.
She was elected the nation’s youngest-ever female mayor in 2012 in Otsu, the capital of Shiga Prefecture of Japan. Since Shiga Prefecture also had a female governor, Yukiko Kada, both the capital and the prefecture was running by women for the first time.
Zekra Alwach, Baghdad, Iraq – Photo: Al Arabiya
A woman has been named as mayor of Baghdad for the first time in 2015. Zekra Alwach, a civil engineer and director general of the ministry of higher education, became mayor of an important city where international rights groups have condemned women’s rights abuses.
Gultan Kisanak, Diyarbakir, Turkey
She is a Kurdish politician in Turkey. In 2014 she was elected first female mayor of Diyarbakır.
Vera Baboun, Bethlehem, Palestine – photo: theapricity
She is a Palestinian politician and the first female mayor of Bethlehem, elected in 2012. Baboun led the Independence and Development bloc made up of Muslims and Christians in the Fatah movement campaigning to improve services and promote the tourism potential of Bethlehem.
Selina Hayat Ivy, Narayanganj, Bangladesh
She is a Bangladeshi politician, a physician and current city mayor of Narayanganj. She was elected the first mayor of Narayanganj when it was turned into a city corporation.
Kazumi Inamura, Amagasaki, Japan
She is a Japanese politician. She has been mayor of Amagasaki since 13 December 2010. Inamura is member of the Greens Japan.
Illiza Saaduddin Djamal, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Djamal is the mayor if Banda Aceh, formerly known as Kutaradja, is the capital and largest city in the province of Aceh, Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra.
Fumiko Hayashi, Yokohama, Japan
She is a Japanese politician and the incumbent mayor of Yokohama, the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. She is the first female mayor of the city.
Tri Rismaharini, Surabaya, Indonesia
She is the current Mayor of Surabaya. Popularly known as Risma, she is both the first directly-elected and first female mayor in the city’s history.
Fatma Sahin, Gaziantep, Turkey
She is a Turkish chemical engineer and politician. On 6 July 2011 she was appointed as the Minister of Family and Social Policies. As a result of the 2014 local elections, Sahin was elected mayor of Gaziantep, Turkey.
Azra Jafari, Nili, Afghanistan
She became the mayor of Nili, a town in Daykundi Province of Afghanistan in 2008.
Bankar is the fifty second and current mayor of Pune, in Maharashtra, India. She is the seventh woman to hold that post. She was elected mayor after the 2012 Pune Municipal Corporation elections.
Abhilasha Gupta, Allahabad, India
She was elected as Allahabad Mayor on 7 July 2012 and became the youngest person to have been elected to the post.
Savita Gupta, South Delhi, India
Savita Gupta is the mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation
Miriam Feirberg, Netanya, Israel
She is the mayor of Netanya, a city in the Centre District of Israel.
She is a Japanese politician and the current mayor of Naha, the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan.
She is a Taiwanese politician who is the current mayor of Kaohsiung.