Archive for the ‘Gender’

‘National security’ in post-war Sri Lanka: Women’s (In) security in the North

JalajakumariSelvarasa

Photo from Hear My VOICE: Jalajakumari Selvarasa ~ “I could often feel the nostalgia” Resurrecting the ‘undead Tiger’[1] to secure the citizen: How the situation of women belie the dominant security narrative ‘The world should appreciate our successful anti-terrorist effort. But today we are being hounded by those who turned a blind eye to LTTE atrocities over the years, particularly its widespread use of child combatants in war against the security forces. Children are no longer at the risk of being abducted on their way to school or back. Girls are no longer forced to wear suicide jackets and throw themselves at military and civilian targets.’- President Mahinda Rajapakse in an interview to The Island, 18 April 2011. ‘We should not have to feel afraid. We should have the freedom to travel freely without fear.’-woman from Vadamaraatchi in Northern Sri Lanka The state of emergency remains in place nearly two years after the end of the war. It is renewed every…

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Celebrating WOMEN: Women’s Photography Exhibition 2011

"It's an excellent effort which encourages women to carry camera, and click. More women are encouraged through this exhibition to experiment their hidden talent" says Deminithurage Amarabandu

“Men ~ their rights, and nothing more; WOMEN~ their rights, and nothing less.” ~ Susan Brownell Anthony (15th February 1820 ~ 13th March  1906, American Women’s Rights Activist, Civil Rights leader and suffragist) Journalism is still a heavily male dominated field in Sri Lanka. Women are slowly but steadily getting into the field of journalism. On the other hand, we are mostly assigned to cover “soft” issues such as to handle the women’s page of a newspaper or cover culture or sub edit stories. We are hardly and rarely assigned to cover conflict or sports, because male journalists and editors think that these are “hard” issues women are unable to cover. Women are equally dedicated, determined, educated, focused and of course talented. We have proven our talents over the years, while standing side by side and shoulder to shoulder on the field with men to cover from disaster to design. 34 women photographers participated in the Women’s Photography Exhibition 2011….

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Violence Against Women and Girls in Sri Lanka: No April Fools joke

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Interviews published on this site with Kumudini Samuel, founder of Women and Media Collective and with Sunila Abeysekara, a leading human rights activist, addressed the prevalence of Gender Based Violence both during war and in post-war Sri Lanka, particularly in the North and East. Addressing the same vexed issue is a production slated for 1st April titled V Day – A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer: Writings to End Violence Against Women and Girls. Supported by the Forum Against Gender Based Violence in Sri Lanka, Groundviews caught up briefly with the director of this production, Hans Billimoria, to ask him why he chose this theme, what V-Day would be about, and why it was important to flag this issue in Sri Lanka. Listen to the podcast (~15 mins): here For a related contribution by Hans to , click on These Sri Lankan whores! Serve them right! Repost This Article

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  • 11 Mar, 2011
  • 40 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Gender,
    Identity

Women on Top: Sexuality and rights in Sri Lanka

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Poster from Equal Ground The author delivered the speech below at the annual International Women’s Day celebration event organised by Equal Ground – WOMEN ON TOP. This event also marked the launch of the 2011 campaign: A woman loving another woman is also a woman. Respect her rights. The idea behind the commemoration of International Women’s Day 2011 by Equal Ground was to provide lesbian, bisexual and transgender women of Sri Lanka a space to voice their concerns and share their experiences. At the event, Ms. Sumika Perera spoke on the role of the women’s movement in Sri Lanka and its responsibility to the Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender women of this country who are still marginalised and shunned by society. In addition, Bhoomi shared her experience as a trans-woman in Sri Lanka. The audience comprised of women diplomats, activists, academics and businesswomen. I was asked to speak about what it is like for me as a straight woman to be…

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A perennial struggle: Women’s political representation in Sri Lanka

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Women constitute 52% of Sri Lanka’s population, however women constitute only 2% of elected members of Local Authorities. A critical concern is the very low levels of nominations received by women (approximately 6%) from political parties (See table below). Much of the blame for this under representation must be borne by the major political parties which have consistently failed to give adequate nominations to women. They are the parties that win seats in any local election. In South Asia, our immediate neighbours with whom we enjoy close historical and cultural ties, the under- representation of women at local elected political bodies have been addressed through legally enforceable quotas for women. In fact Sri Lanka remains the only country without any special measures to facilitate women’s representation in Local Authorities. In Bangladesh, at least 25% of seats are reserved for women in Union Councils (1996 legislation); in India not less than 33% of seats are reserved for women and other marginalized…

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These Sri Lankan whores! Serve them right!

Name and shame the whores that act in pornographic films online. Their seedy grainy stuck-between-teeth pictures plastered across newspapers will be the deterrent for other whores who have the same idea. Designate parks for young people to canoodle in (but ensure someone watches over the canoodlers for we don’t want them to canoodle with naked noodles, for that would be a travesty of our cultural norms and mores). Our children are getting abused. Our teenagers are getting pregnant. But we don’t need sex education. This is a Western concept. “If we promote our culture and practice the morals norms and values there is no need for sex education.” These news stories among others, including sex education in international schools, these last few weeks have been interesting for us who work in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights. If we do not pursue the discussion though, discussions around sex in the media could lend to superficial reactions that…

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Sanctity

Photo courtesy Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai Sanctity, or rather a loss of sanctity, anchors the meditations that you will find in the few passages below. A recent article in the Economist made a mildly facetious account of the current administration’s efforts to create a Sri Lankan society grounded in ‘good values and ethics.’  The article goes on to discuss the paradox of vice-and-virtue squads in the land that also produces Wonderbras, and of the all out war on public displays of affection. Now, the PDA has always does give many a little discomfort, and Internet pornography really is somewhat unnecessary.  Our beloved president may be taking things a bit too far with his ‘moral rage’, but admit it, there is a little prude inside all of us that wouldn’t mind a modicum of moderation in society. If this administration were to stop at a little necessary tweaking, one could find a way to compromise with Rajapakse’s moral policing. Unfortunately, the denouement of…

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Celebrating sexist, lewd live television in Sri Lanka

When I overhead someone talking about the dramatic finale of Swarnavahini’s Megastar reality show I wanted to know what had happened since I had seen a few episodes of this bizarre show – where arguments and insults that fly freely between the judges and contestants is as much the draw as the singing skills of participants. I checked to see what footage was available online and when browsing websites, and was horrified to come across a video of a comment by Minister Mervyn Silva about fellow MP and contestant Upeksha Swarnamali’s performance. Mervyn Silva expressly notes that he was so charmed by Upeksha’s attire he wished he was an infant and could be breastfed by her. The host of the show, Kamal Addararachchi, is seen to giggle at this outrageously derogatory comment. This, to be clear, is a programme broadcast live on public television. I’m not a fan of Upeksha’s, but I was embarrassed for her and offended. I won’t…

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Why women in politics always matters: A conversation with Chulani Kodikara

Chulani Kodikara has written five articles for Groundviews, three on the topic of women in mainstream politics in Sri Lanka. Revealingly, they are comparatively three of the most under-read articles on this site. Women are not willing to go back to pre-war status quo, a compelling essay written for the special edition on the end of war, has at the time of writing only generated around 450 pageviews, abysmal in comparison to the tens of thousands who read and engaged with other articles in this special edition. This marked lack of interest in and awareness of a vital issue provided the backdrop for a recent conversation with Chulani on the issue of women’s representation in Sri Lankan mainstream politics. Fundamentally, the issue is marginal to mainstream political parties and of peripheral interest at best to most voters – female and male. In an important essay, Chulani notes that “the main obstacle to equal political representation of women in political institutions…

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A conversation with Kumudini Samuel

Kumudini Samuel is the founder of Women and Media Collective, a women’s group working for the inclusion of women concerns in peace process and the change of attitudes towards gender issues. We begin our conversation over Kumudini’s interesting naming of her son, leading to larger questions over discrimination and negotiation of identity, race and ethnicity in Sri Lanka. Kumudini also talks about her work as a peace activist during the years of war from the 80′s, and about her time as a member of the Sub Committee on Gender Issues during the ceasefire agreement in 2003, negotiating with at the time high-level female cadre from the LTTE. I asked her why in 2003 she thought it fit to sit down with the killers of Sarojini Yogeswaran. As noted in this article, Sarojini, who was shot dead at her home, had refused military security in her belief that the political culture of Jaffna should, and could, be changed by a civil…

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LLRC: Testimony by Ferial Ashraff

Groundviews was able to obtain the audio recording of the testimony by Ferial Ashraff to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) on 24 September 2010. The recording is around 40 minutes long. Ms. Ashraff incorporates into this vital testimony the opinion of many women, including those directly affected by war. Repost This Article

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  • 17 Sep, 2010
  • 24 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Gender,
    Human Rights,
    Youth

USJP Students’ Union: Harassment and Gender Discrimination over clothing

Many believe that women in Sri Lanka are in a better place compared to its counterparts in South Asia. This is true up to a certain extent where women enjoy a high level of education, high life expectancy at birth (74 years) and access to economic opportunities. Sri Lanka elected the first ever female head of state and had since been governed by two female heads of state – namely Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge. Yet women face gender related issues. Dominant among them is violence against women. Once President Chandrika Kumaratunga noted, “There’s a new problem – violence against women, social violence like rape, even rape of little children. Physical violence, (some) not heard of before, is on the increase”. Indeed as President Kumaratunga says, women face diverse forms of physical violence where some are unknown to many. Like the instance of female students in Sri Jayawardanapura University coming under physical and verbal harassment for wearing…

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CELEBRATING PRIDE IN SRI LANKA

11th June 2010 – 11th July 2010 marks PRIDE month in Sri Lanka. Historically stemming from the watershed Stonewall riots in 1969, which broke out when police raided a gay bar in New York City, it has now evolved into a global celebration of diversity. In recent years the South Asian region has become a prominent feature in PRIDE celebrations.  For example in the cities of Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Mumbai, LGBTIQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning) persons together with their heterosexual allies march the streets peacefully demanding they be recognised equally before the law. A year has now passed since India decriminalised homosexuality during PRIDE month by reading down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’ after an arduous and highly publicised 10 year campaign. Closer to home, PRIDE month now in its 6th consecutive year aims to raise awareness about the issues faced by the LGBTIQ community in…

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  • 7 Jul, 2010
  • 12 Comments
  • Advocacy,
    Colombo,
    Gender,
    Identity

Celebrating a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning Sri Lanka

Rosanna Flamer-Caldera is the Executive Director of Equal Ground. This interview was held soon after the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka said he was open to dialogue with the gay community, but “would not take any decision which could hurt the culture of the country”. Almost exactly one year ago, India decriminalised gay sex. As the Times of India noted at the time, India took a giant, albeit belated, step towards globalisation on Thursday when the Delhi high court delivered a historic judgement to amend a 149-year-old colonial-era law — Section 377 of the IPC — and decriminalise private consensual sex between adults of the same sex. It is the biggest victory yet for gays rights and a major milestone in the country’s social evolution. India becomes the 127th country to take the guilt out of homosexuality. As the full text of the Delhi High Court judgement avers, “There is almost unanimous medical and psychiatric opinion that homosexuality is not…

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Compilation of special edition on the end of war in Sri Lanka

Special Edition Logo

Download the 162 page compilation of content as a PDF in high quality (25.4Mb), or low quality (3.7Mb). The low quality version is good enough to read, but the photos will look and print much better in the high quality version. From 19 – 27 May 2010, Groundviews ran a special edition on the end of war in Sri Lanka. Over this week alone, the site received over forty thousand readers and exclusively featured over eighty thousand words of original content, one video premiere, over a dozen photos, generating over one hundred and fifty thousand words of commentary. Tens of thousands more have read and commented on this content since, making the special edition a sui generis archive of intelligent debate, incisive critique and vital perspectives that mainstream media in Sri Lanka, even post-war, is too fearful to feature. For example, one memorable and particularly hard-hitting comment inspired by the content in this special edition came from Tathagata Bose, an Indian…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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