Veasna Chea Leth (born 1944) is a lawyer from

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

, who was the first female law student at the

Royal University of Law and Economics The Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE) is one of the oldest higher educational institutions in Cambodia. RULE was established in 1949 as the National Institute of Law, Politics and Economics. In 2003, the institution was officially deem ...

. During her studies in the 1990s she lived in an underground space under the university due to the lack of female dormitories. During her work as a lawyer she raised awareness of the issues that Cambodian women face in accessing university education, due to a lack of appropriate accommodation. This led to the author

Alan Lightman Alan Paige Lightman is an American physicist, writer, and social entrepreneur. He has served on the faculties of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is currently a Professor of the Practice of the Humanities a ...

establishing the Harpswell Foundation to support women, of which she is an Honorary Board Member. In 2018 she was nominated as one of the BBC's 100 Women.

References

Cambodian lawyers Cambodian activists Women activists Living people 1944 births Women economists Royal University of Law and Economics alumni {{Asia-law-bio-stub