Asmi Shrestha, a 22-year-old BBA student from Kathmandu, was selected as Miss Nepal World 2016 at the Hidden Treasure Fanta Miss Nepal 2016 pageant held at Hotel Annapurna in the Capital on Friday evening.

The 21st iteration of the annual beauty pageant saw 19 finalists competing for the most coveted beauty title in the country. Roshini Khatri won second place as Miss Nepal Earth 2016 and Barsha Lekhi took home the Miss Nepal International 2016 title. Shrestha will be representing Nepal at the Miss World 2016 pageant, Khatri at Miss Earth 2016 and Lekhi at Miss International 2016. 

Shrestha’s winning answer to the final question ‘Is reservation necessary for women?’ was: “Being the participant of batch of 21st Miss Nepal and the lady of 21st century what I would say in this context is that we are the women of the country where we have Lady President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and three CNN heroes. Therefore, if we women opt for the opportunities out there in the society without the fear of being judged we don’t need any such reservation and rules. No one can stop us and yes we can rule the world. Jai Nepal!”

This year’s panel of judges had Sangita Shrestha, Jiwan Luintel, Rajendra Thapa, Ganga Jung Thapa, Laxman Humagain, Indira Joshi, Sneh Rana, Babita Basnet, Nabina Lama, Sachin Shrestha, and Asmi Rana. The programme, which was dedicated to the earthquake victims, started with a presentation of video clips of the quakes of last year. It was followed by an introduction round of the participants and the judges. A video of the making of the new crowns, which are a reflectionof the Nepali culture, was also presented at the event. 

From the 19 contestants, the top 10 were selected who were then asked different questions from the panel of judges. On the basis of their answers, the top five—Srijana Regmi, Barsha Lekhi, Roshini Khatri, Asmi Shrestha and Namrata Shrestha—were selected; who were then asked the final deciding question. Shrestha will serve as the brand ambassador for Fanta and WWF Nepal for a year. The auditions of Miss Nepal were held in Biratnagar, Birgunj, Chitwan, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Butwal and Kathmandu.