Sri Lanka gets a woman prime minister after decades

Harini Amarasuriya, the new Interim Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Wikipedia.

The dissolution of Sri Lanka parliament came hours after President Dissanayake swore in a female lawmaker as the new interim prime minister, making her the first woman to lead a Sri Lankan government in 24 years.

Harini Amarasuriya, 54, a university lecturer and activist, comes from a similar background to Dissanayake. She is also a member of Dissanyake's Marxist-leaning coalition party.

The last woman to serve as prime minister in Sri Lanka was Sirimavo Bandaranaike. She was also the world's first female to become a prime minister when she took up the post in 1960 and served three separate terms, from 1960 to 1965, from 1970 to 1977, and then finally from 1994 to 2000, when she stepped down citing health reasons before dying two months later. - DW News