Muslim Law: The need for reform
Photography courtesy Sister-Hood The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) is opposed to making any changes to the existing Muslim family law. Mufti Rizvi, who is a member of the Saleem Marsoof Committee…
Identity
Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas 2017: Finalist
is pleased to announce the ‘Corridors of Power’, a path-breaking project marrying constitutional reform and theory with architecture, is a finalist in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas 2017 awards, under the Urban…
On Independence: An Audiovisual Story
February 4, 1948 is a date most schoolchildren learn by rote in history class; the day Sri Lanka declared independence from the British, ending a cycle of colonial rule dating back as…
A decade: In Passing
Photograph courtesy My mother always used to ask me why I didn’t write more often and I always had a stock reply “Everything I write is so negative, even I can’t stand…
Writing to Reconcile: A personal journey
Image from Write to Reconcile Last fall, in Toronto, I went to see a play that was written by one of the writers in this anthology, Sindhuri Nandakumar. The play was called…
The Curse of the Obstinate Patriarch
Today marks the second anniversary of the victory of Maithripala Sirisena as the President of Sri Lanka at the 8th January 2015 Sri Lankan Presidential Election. And the second anniversary of the…
Beyond serendipity
I What do our new generation of parents, friends and neighbours, colleagues at work and future leaders think about cultural supremacy? 64% of Sri Lankans aged 15 to 29 believe their culture…
From ‘Api wenuwen api’ to ‘Aba Saranai’: Snapshots of ten years
Photograph courtesy When Sanjana came up with an offer too tempting to pass, I accepted with the knowledge that rolling out the significant junctures of the past decade and reflecting them upon…
Emotional People and Emotional Nations
Photo by REUTERS/ Mariana Bazo, via Time magazine There is no getting around it, we humans are emotional beings. Thereby, nations made up of humans will possess an emotional psyche which is reflected…
The Story of One: On some lives erased and others that give hope
I first met Father Harry Miller in 2013. We sat and talked in his office on the top floor of St. Michael’s College, Batticaloa. Noisy crows had gathered outside his window, threatening…
Ceylon’s First Moor Journalist
The Muslim community is at the centre of news each day- rarely for the right reasons. The unfolding of the Islamic State has shown the worst ways in which religious identities could…
Lessons Learnt on Reconciliation
After opening night of on the 26th of November 2009, a small group remained behind long after the show finished. They sat dotted around the small amphitheatre, not speaking a word. Theatre…
Reconstruction
Pictures photographed for . The book is a visual documentation of this four-year undertaking by the Trust, in partnership with UNICEF. The Trust’s activities centred around education, health and child protection as…
Muslim Women: Second-Class Rights Holders in Sri Lanka’s Quazi System
Despite volumes of research and recommendations for reform, Sri Lanka’s Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act of 1951 (MMDA) and the Quazi court system remain untouched and continue to oppress Muslim women. Muslim…
Personal/Political
Photo courtesy Abdul Halik Azeez In September 2013, I lost my mother. 8 months after that, in May 2014, I lost my brother. They were significant people, in more ways than one. There…
