Sri Lanka

Citation:

Pieris, Anoma. 2012. “Between the Home and the World in Violent Conflict.” Gender, Place & Culture 19 (6): 771–89.

Author: Anoma Pieris

Abstract:

Throughout Sri Lanka's civil war (1983–2009) official and international news media was dominated by ethnic politics while civilian voices remained silent. Similarly, at the end of the war, media manipulation of civilian traumas for a continuing political contest between the Sri Lankan Government and Tamil diasporic groups shut down other discursive frameworks. The more intimate stories of loss, bereavement, depression and grief were manipulated for a prolonged and bitter nationalist struggle. This article returns to a medium in which these stories were previously voiced, during the war years, in South Asian cinema. Due to government censorship of news media and limited access to the war zone, the local film industries proved to be the more cogent mediums for representing deep-rooted cultural anxieties to mainstream audiences. They conveyed everyday realities absent from news media in fictional interpretations of real events. Questions were raised regarding the affective memories and loyalties of the ethnic conflict and the role of women. The home, its destruction, displacement or re-inscription through violence became a central concern. This article focuses on three South Asian films that explored the subject of motherhood, homelessness and militarization of the ethno-cultural domestic sphere at the height of the ethnic conflict. Their shift from the urban public sites of military contest to private domestic spaces of civilian experience offered a cultural examination of political violence. By revisiting them as early conjectures of civilian trauma we ask how their interpretations of gender and place might be understood in the wake of the civil war.

Keywords: film, Gender, civil war, homelessness, home, modernity

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Civil Society, Gender, Women, Media, Households, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2012

Citation:

Perera-Mubarak, Kamakshi N. 2013. “Positive Responses, Uneven Experiences: Intersections of Gender, Ethnicity, and Location in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka.” Gender, Place & Culture 20 (5): 664–85. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2012.709828.

Author: Kamakshi N. Perera-Mubarak

Abstract:

This article examines the role of women in post-tsunami livelihoods recovery in two tsunami-affected villages in the Hambantota District, South Sri Lanka. It considers four key livelihoods recovery strategies involving women, revealing their immense capacity to overcome socially constructed disaster impacts. Their ability to respond positively is grounded in specific geographic and cultural contexts, making location and ethnicity of profound consequence. Although pre-existing ethnic backgrounds, influenced by religious and patriarchal structures, are critical indicators of the uneven ways in which women engaged in livelihoods recovery, the tsunami generated new patterns of cultural practice. The article adds to research that goes beyond the simplistic representation of women as undifferentiated ‘victims’ in post-tsunami Sri Lanka. It stimulates discussion on the lived experiences of intersectionality in feminist geography, and emphasizes the broader relevance of the study for understanding multiple and transforming positionalities that constitute the post-disaster lives of women in divergent socio-political contexts.

Keywords: Gender, intersectionality, 2004 tsunami, Sri Lanka, rural livelihoods

Topics: Economies, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Livelihoods, Political Economies Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2013

Citation:

Attanapola, Chamila T., Cathrine Brun, and Ragnhild Lund. 2013. “Working Gender after Crisis: Partnerships and Disconnections in Sri Lanka after the Indian Ocean Tsunami.” Gender, Place & Culture 20 (1): 70–86.

Authors: Chamila T. Attanapola, Cathrine Brun, Ragnhild Lund

Abstract:

This article focuses on how northern non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their partners, community-based organizations (CBOs), are ‘working’ gender after a crisis. It explores the relationship between one NGO aiming to mainstream gender and a women's CBO in a village in southern Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami. The gender policies of the NGO and how the CBO has co-opted these policies are analysed in terms of discourse, interdependence, power and performance. Structural and individual challenges for working gender in post-crisis situations are analyzed and the constraints for making deep reaching changes that can alter gender relations are identified. Because of differences in the conceptualization and implementation of gender policies and practices, the CBO has manoeuvred to maintain its own interests, while the NGO has experienced disconnections in working gender between organizational levels and locations of implementation. In conclusion, it is argued that for changes to take place, knowledge production on gender needs to be locally situated and sensitive to the structural conditions and power relations with which organizations and communities engage.

Keywords: working gender, mainstreaming, partnerships, non-governmental organizations, Sri Lanka

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Gender Equality/Inequality, NGOs Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2013

Citation:

Fisher, Sarah. 2010. “Violence Against Women and Natural Disasters: Findings From Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka.” Violence Against Women 16 (8): 902–18. doi:10.1177/1077801210377649.

Author: Sarah Fisher

Abstract:

This article presents a qualitative study of violence against women in post-tsunami Sri Lanka. It examines the types of violence occurring throughout the disaster’s emergency and later phases, and whether overall levels of violence increased. Explanatory factors and responses by different humanitarian actors are analyzed and recommendations made for future disaster management. It is argued that violence against women during natural disasters must be understood within the context of the violence against women that prevails in societies at “normal” times, which is exacerbated by disaster. Response therefore necessitates addressing both the social inequalities underlying women’s vulnerability to violence and specific factors that “trigger” violence during disaster.

Keywords: disaster management, domestic violence, natural disaster, violence, rape

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2010

Citation:

Jayarathne, Saranga Subhashini. “Women’s Potential in Dealing with Natural Disasters: A Case Study from Sri Lanka.” Asian Journal of Women’s Studies 20, no. 1 (January 1, 2014): 125–36. doi:10.1080/12259276.2014.11666175.

Author: Saranga Subhashini Jayarathne

Abstract:

Disaster is gender indifferent but its impact is usually gender differentiated. The 2004 Tsunami statistics show that male survivors in Sri Lanka outnumbered female survivors. The notion of women being the “weaker sex’ gives them limited space for learning physical skills that are deemed vital for surviving disasters. Their knowledge and experience regarding the environment is always undermined. This further limits and discourages them from contributing towards disaster management. Women should be incorporated at every level in the disaster management cycle. Women-centered public awareness and skills training can help increase women and children's disaster preparedness and equip them with the skills necessary to overcome disasters. Women's participation in national-level decision-making is also a necessity. A gender-blind disaster management system can only worsen the impact of disasters, especially for women and girls. This paper challenges the depiction of women as mere victims of disasters, while attempting to point out the vital nexus between women's untapped potential and disaster management.

Keywords: disasters, vulnerability, women, untapped potential

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Gender Balance, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Governance Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2014

Citation:

Parashar, Swati. 2014. Women and Militant Wars: The Politics of Injury. War, Politics and Experience. London & New York: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Women-and-Militant-Wars-The-politics-of-injury/Parashar/p/book/9780415827966.

Author: Swati Parashar

Abstract:

Keywords: politics & international relations, asian politics, South Asian politics, military & strategic studies, security studies, terrorism, war & conflict studies, social sciences, gender studies

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Female Combatants, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarism, Religion, Security, Terrorism Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2014

Citation:

Gentry, Caron E., and Laura Sjoberg, eds. 2011. Women, Gender, and Terrorism. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

Authors: Caron E. Gentry, Laura Sjoberg

Abstract:

"In the last decade the world has witnessed a rise in women’s participation in terrorism. Women, Gender, and Terrorism explores women’s relationship with terrorism, with a keen eye on the political, gender, racial, and cultural dynamics of the contemporary world. Throughout most of the twentieth century, it was rare to hear about women terrorists. In the new millennium, however, women have increas­ingly taken active roles in carrying out suicide bombings, hijacking air­planes, and taking hostages in such places as Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, and Chechnya. These women terrorists have been the subject of a substantial amount of media and scholarly attention, but the analysis of women, gender, and terrorism has been sparse and riddled with stereotypical thinking about women’s capabilities and motivations. In the first section of this volume, contributors offer an overview of women’s participation in and relationships with contemporary terrorism, and a historical chapter traces their involvement in the politics and conflicts of Islamic societies. The next section includes empirical and theoretical analysis of terrorist movements in Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, and Sri Lanka. The third section turns to women’s involvement in al Qaeda and includes critical interrogations of the gendered media and the scholarly presentations of those women. The conclusion offers ways to further explore the subject of gender and terrorism based on the contributions made to the volume. Contributors to Women, Gender, and Terrorism expand our understanding of terrorism, one of the most troubling and complicated facets of the modern world." (University of Georgia Press)

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Media, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Political Participation, Terrorism, Violence Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sri Lanka

Year: 2011

Citation:

Author: Rounaq Jahan

Abstract:

This article traces the role of women in the corrupt political sphere of South Asia. While women's participation in politics may be analysed in many ways, this article will concentrate on three major issues: women in leadership, women in mainstream politics, and the new women's movement as an alternative to the mainstream. Data and examples are drawn primarily from the four South Asian countries where women have achieved leadership positions in the last few decades: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Topics: Civil Society, Corruption, Gender, Women, Political Participation Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Year: 1987

Citation:

Author: International Center for Research on Women

Topics: Domestic Violence, Economies, Gender, Women, Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights, Security Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India, Sri Lanka

Year: 2006

Citation:

Author: James A. Mitchell

Abstract:

The most appropriate stamp might be "The Children's War," for both victim and combatant, because the civil war in Sri Lanka isn't being waged exclusively by adults, nor is it just a boys' club. The Tamil Tigers have two significantly negative reputations: masters of the suicide bomb attack and recruiters of child soldiers. In spite of a growing body of testimony-too many girls have described the training sessions, so their existence can't be denied-the LTTE still denies that their child-recruitment strategy includes weapons training and the solicitation of suicide bombers.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Combatants, Child Soldiers, Female Combatants, Gender, Girls, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Peace Processes Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 2006