Fury as BBC includes transgender woman activist Rukshana Kapali on its annual list of 100 ‘inspiring and influential’ women

The BBC said Rukshana Kapali is a ‘transgender human rights activist’
A spokesperson said the BBC has included transgender people on lists before

The BBC has sparked anger after it included a transgender woman on its annual 100 Women list for 2023.

Critics claimed the decision to include activist Rukshana Kapali, from Nepal, on the list of ‘inspiring’ and ‘influential’ women was not ‘fair’ and ‘insulting’, with accusations the inclusion made the list ‘meaningless’.

This year’s list includes a selection of women from many different fields, including well-known figures such as Michelle Obama and Amal Clooney.

In its entry for the list, the BBC described Kapali as a ‘housing campaigner’ and a ‘transgender human rights activist’.

Rukshana Kapali from Nepal, pictured, has been described by the BBC as a ‘transgender human rights activist’ and included on a list of the year’s 100 most inspiring women

Her inclusion on the list has received criticism for ‘taking a place away from another biological woman’

The description said she had ‘embarked on her own path of self-education around the diversity of gender and sexuality’ and ‘came out as a teenager’ and had been ‘vocal on social media on issues around queer rights’.

It added that the third-year law student was involved in advancing ‘legal and constitutional rights for LGBTQ+ people in Nepal’.

She comes from ‘a historically marginalised caste’ called the Jugi, within the Newa ethnicity and fights against this group’s forced evictions from traditional homes.

But the corporation’s decision to include her on the list, which first launched in 2013, has not gone down well with women’s rights activists and others.

One woman, who advocates for ‘women’s sex based rights’ attacked the decision, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘But you have taken a place away from another biological women. This isn’t right or fair.’

They told the BBC to ‘stop taking opportunities away from women’.

Another critic added: ‘WHY include a male in @BBC100women 2023 list?

‘Surely it’s easy to compile a list of 100 influential & inspiring WOMEN from around the world. Kapali could be recognised for his work to further LGBTQ rights but #BBC100Women isn’t the list for him – It’s for WOMEN.’

Responding to one of the BBC’s social media posts on the list, another woman replied: ‘Except you had to include at least one man. How insulting. Men are better women than woman according to BBC.’

One said including a ‘man’ on the list ‘makes the whole thing meaningless for the amazing actual women on there’.

Last year the BBC faced a similar row when it included two transgender activists on the 100 Women list.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘Transgender women have previously been featured on the BBC 100 Women list many times, since the very first BBC 100 Women season was launched in 2013. The BBC 100 Women list also featured a transgender activist who identifies as non-binary in 2019’

The 2022 list included Erika Hilton, who was the first trans black woman to be elected to National Congress of Brazil, while Efrat Tilma was the Israeli police’s first transgender volunteer.

This decision was said to have divided opinion among some of the BBC’s own journalists.

The BBC was recently at the centre of another trans controversy after it opened up a training course, created to increase the number of female production staff, to anyone identifying as a woman.

The six-day course, called BBC: Female Self-Shooters, aimed to teach women how to become camera operators, a traditionally male-dominated role in the industry.

The BBC has yet to respond to the criticism.

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