Thoughts count
Photo from Wired At almost two years of age I attempted to write my own story, when I ran out of words I tried to draw. It wasn’t a worthless effort however…
Gender
The gender paradox in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy Women make up 50% of the population but only 5% of the parliament – how can this be solved? ”If the women of a country are slaves, the men can…
A Short Note on the Historical Legacy of International Women’s Day
Introduction In the West, International Women’s Day was first observed as a popular event after 1977 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN…
Where are our loved ones who have been abducted, arrested and disappeared?
Image courtesy Today ### To His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Respected President, In the journey towards good governance where are our loved ones who…
Maithripala Sirisena’s Victory: Winning the Hearts of Women
Photo courtesy The Hindu As the campaigning for both candidates has ended, and the celebrations for the victory of Maithripala Sirisena have begun, larger battles are still being waged, and will be…
Whatever happened to the respect towards women in Sri Lanka?
Photo courtesy IPS A few days ago, I listened to a speech made by the great artiste Mr Dharmasiri Bandaranayake. Although there were several connotations in his speech, and it contained much…
Do we enjoy universal adult Franchise?
Image courtesy SBS We did enjoy full adult voting rights in our island for 18 years after the far reaching Donoughmore reforms of 1931 (reaching further than many of our leaders, Sinhalese…
Ensure and protect the rights of people who survived the landslide
Image courtesy Colombo Gazette Memorandum to the Ministry of Disaster Management Ensure and protect the rights of people, especially women and children, who survived the landslide which occurred in the Haldumulla DS…
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…
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….
