Nowsha Farha has been elected as the new Cambridge Student’s Union (SU) women’s officer, filling the role which has been vacant since April.

The race was tight, with Farha and opponent Jing (Eve) Zhang having only one vote between them in the first stage of voting. In the second stage votes were tied, but Farha won due to receiving more first preference votes.

Farha, a PHD student, has previously been an SU student council voting member. She was also head of the Women’s Network Open Portfolio at UCL SU and a member of Amnesty International’s Women’s Network.

She is the fourth women’s officer elected in the last two years. The role has been vacant since Rosie Freeman resigned in April of last academic year. Freeman remains chair of the women’s campaign.

Milo Eyre-Morgan previously resigned from the post in early 2022 as well as Heidi Chan, who was elected as the women’s officer following Eyre-Morgan’s resignation, but did not take up the role for personal reasons.

Manjar Gupta was due to take up the role for this academic year but was unable to take up her post following issues with her visa, triggering a by-election.

Farha’s manifesto includes working on the gender awarding gap, after it was excluded from the University’s access plan earlier this year.

She has also pledged to stand up against trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) ideology, set up self-defence workshops and create inclusive spaces for all female-identifying students.

Farha will be the last women’s officer, following the decision to axe six sabbatical roles, including women’s officer, starting next academic year. Other sabbatical officers that are being axed include the welfare officer and access, education and participation officer roles.

The role of women’s officer will now be covered by the women’s campaign, who will become independent of the SU.

The result will remain provisional pending approval from the SU’s democracy committee, and until the deadline for election complaints passes.