The Role of Women in Countering Extremism
I want to thank the government of the United Arab Emirates for taking this important initiative to have debate and discussion on one of the most pressing issues of our times. I…
Gender
The Legacy of A New Woman in Our Generation: Sunila Abeysekara (1952-2013)
Photo courtesy ‘Her discourse, even when ‘theoretical’ or political, is never simple or linear or ‘objectivized’, universalized; she involves her story in history’. – Helene Cixous and Catherine Clement, The Newly Born Woman, 1986.…
“Where are the Sri Lankan Female Scientists?” A Case of Democratizing Science
Photo by Reuters, courtesy International Business Times In recent decades, many researchers, education specialists and policy advocates have paid increasing attention to the issue of gender bias in science. While several successful…
Good women and bad women of the post-war nation
Photo by Anushka Wijesinha, 2011, via IPS Since the end of war in May 2009, the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has sought to forge a new overarching Sri Lanka identity…
Women and Children: The Cutting Edge of International Law
Photo by UN/Myriam Asmani, via World Education Blog The Grotius Lecture 2014[1] PREFACE Sometime at the end of 2011, while I was still the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General…
The invisible sexism in mainstream media
The ran this story today. Rather than critique it, we did a simple thing. We changed the gender of those mentioned in the story. If you think the following article is utterly…
“Strong Women”: A book review
In the post-war phase, discourse around women and their rights remains extremely weak. As such, attention must be paid to the day-to-day increase of violence against women and girls across the country.…
NO LABELS: International Women’s Day 2014
If there were no division, there would be no sides to be taken. We take stances as women’s organizations, LGBT collectives, racists, classists, as men as women. We call each other names…
Who is a sex worker?
Image courtesy Global Press Journal Who is a sex worker? Is she an attractive woman with loose morals who is too lazy to find any ‘real’ work? Is she a young desperate…
Should a Muslim eat wedding cake? A note on interpellation and agency
A few days ago, at the wedding of two Sri Lankan Muslims, both of whose families hail from Mannar, families forcibly evicted from their homes by the LTTE in 1990, a married…
The niqab and the University of Moratuwa
Photograph courtesy The Agenda My name is Fathima Sahar, a first year student at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Moratuwa. I am one of three students who are affected…
A Call for Accountability: Death of a Young Woman in Kilinochchi
On November 28, 2013 a pregnant mother from Malaiyalapuram North[1] (Malaiyalapuram) in Kilinochchi District died at Jaffna Teaching Hospital. She was 17 and 2/7 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.…
Co-operatives as a means to uplift war affected women in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy UNDP Sri Lanka (A presentation made on 16th November, 2013 at London at a meeting of Charitable Organisations working with war victims in Sri Lanka) The end of the war…
Women and children in the North: Sexual harassment, grievances and challenges
In September 2013, Watchdog travelled to the Vanni[1] and met with survivors of sexual violence, women’s rights activists and representatives of women’s groups. This report is based on information provided during interviews…
Will Logarani Be The Last Victim Of Violence Against Women?
Around 5pm on 17 October 2013, within the Jaffna municipality, one of our friends (a male youth resident of Jaffna) came to our home (a few friends were gathered there) looking very…
