Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
When I was invited to deliver a lecture on the occasion of Rajani Thiranagama’s death anniversary, I felt honoured. Contemplating what I could say on this sombre occasion, I felt somewhat beholden to the pasts that Rajani had stood witness to, and also the future that stood to gain and learn (...)
Former garment makers in Sri Lanka are having to take desperate measures to get through the economic crisis
A diminutive female figure enters the brightly lit courtyard, tugging a blue Disney-themed dress below her knees and swatting away the mosquitoes.
With a sigh, she expresses her (...)
In late April, women from movements and collectives in the North and East marched into GotaGoGama in Galle Face to voice their concerns and issues in solidarity with the struggle in the South. From organizing satyagrahas on the streets against a plethora of issues to engaging with women headed (...)
As Sri Lanka’s economic and political crisis worsens, heartrending stories of human suffering are emerging every day. People are being forced to make difficult choices between purchasing medicine and buying food. Waiting in long queues for fuel and cooking gas is taking its toll on resilient (...)
“I am here because I don’t have another option,” says Semini*, as she waits in line at the pawnbrokers. It’s nearing noon and the air conditioning is barely adequate against the unforgiving April sun outside the small pawnshop space.
Semini is 28 years old and a single mother. She is here to pawn (...)
In response to Sri Lanka’s ongoing economic crisis, and the consensus across the political spectrum and even social classes that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out and structural adjustment programme is the only short-to-medium term exit or at least breathing space for citizens, the (...)
Sri Lanka is facing the worst economic crisis in its post-independence history. Widespread food and fuel shortages are crippling the lives of people. Such a situation that has already lasted several weeks is now resulting in widespread protests which are being repressed violently. We anticipate (...)
The Government that came into power pledging to abolish all microfinance debt has failed to keep its promises.
Moreover, the Government has also been unsuccessful in making a sufficient intervention to facilitate women suffering from an escalated microfinance crisis in the backdrop of the (...)
Nearly three years have passed since the deadly 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. While failing to prosecute the actual perpetrators, the state has single-handedly used the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act No. 48 of 1979 (PTA) as a cudgel to persecute the entire Muslim minority. As (...)
Despite previous assurances from the Ministry of Justice that an Amendment Bill to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) would be presented to Parliament by January this year, it is learnt that the Bill to be tabled in the House will be further delayed. This is despite activists urging the (...)
When is the right time? How many more children and adolescents need to be savaged by this system? How many more women need to be unfairly punished and thrown onto the streets to beg and children enrolled in madrasas that only teach to memorize the Quran. Now especially is not the time for (...)
A woman’s right to decide what happens to her body is at the core of her right to equality, human dignity, and choice. This right is identified as one’s bodily autonomy. By criminalising abortion, Sri Lanka’s law undermines a woman’s right to exercise her bodily autonomy. Despite this (...)
Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum and Muslim Personal Law Reform Action Group welcome move
Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum and Muslim Personal Law Reform Action Group in a joint statement have welcomed the news that the Advisory Committee on Muslim Law Reforms has submitted its (...)
This is the rallying cry of Muslim women who want their voices heard and a speedy reform to Sri Lanka’s Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA)
A few weeks before Yasmin’s nikah ceremony, there was a flurry of news articles announcing reforms to Sri Lanka’s Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA). (...)
Sri Lanka’s media minister Keheliya Rambukwella informed reporters his ministry would not launch an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment in media institutions despite a significant number of women journalists sharing their experiences on Twitter. The International Federation of (...)
This week’s Kuppi Talk takes off from an earlier piece on ragging that drew attention to the anti-democratic culture that breeds violence within the university system. Shamala Kumar linked this violence to the lack of democracy within universities, and society more broadly.
When we talk about (...)
Ongoing protest against microfinance the latest from Rajapaksas’ support base
M. Champa Irangani is in no mood to celebrate ‘Avurudu’, or New Year, the biggest annual festival that Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese community observes mid-April, while Tamils celebrate the Tamil New Year around the (...)
The recent use of the Vagrants Ordinance against four women for “idling” at night caused a social media backlash against police for targeting women who are on the streets during late hours.
But police do not apply the Vagrants Ordinance against women in general, a spokesman insisted, and the (...)
On International Women’s Day (IWD) 2021, in a small tent located at the Polonnaruwa Raja Sabha Mandapaya, women sat down to begin a satyagraha against the microfinance debt that has crippled rural economies and left them helpless. Current statistics say that more than 2.8 million people are (...)
A review of Meena Kandasamy’s ’The Orders Were to Rape You: Tamil Tigresses in the Tamil Eelam Struggle’.
Meena Kandasamy’s The Orders Were to Rape You: Tamil Tigresses in the Tamil Eelam Struggle contains three narratives; that of the author, the story of ‘a Tamil Tiger’s wife’, and that of a LTTE (...)
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