By Shruthi De Visser
Despite momentous events in Sri Lanka’s history such as the first female Head of State and significant literacy rates of young girls, Sri Lanka’s political arena has been lacking greater representation of women. Women in Sri Lanka make up 56% of voters but only 5% of legislators. In 2018, for the first time, Local Government Elections enforced a 25% quota for women. Out of 56,000 candidates, 17,000 were women and approximately 2,000 of them were elected for Local Government.
Since Independence, only four women from the Northern Province have held parliamentary seats. Today in 2021, not a single Tamil woman, from anywhere in the country, is represented in Parliament. These women are worth highlighting because as much as we want young girls and women (and men) to see more representation of themselves in media, in politics, and in the arts, they also need to see a diverse representation. Diversity that will in turn teach them about inclusivity and drawing from the strengths of others, especially those that operate in contexts that are challenging on many levels. To do this, I’ve highlighted 12 women I’ve had the privilege of meeting and getting to know.
These women represent the Jaffna, Mullaitivu, and Mannar Districts. Umachandra, Bawadharani, Gowri, Selvi, and Kuneswary are from Jaffna. Valarmathy, Mary, and Shanthi are from Mullaitivu and Maliny, Uthayasanthira, Shyamala, and Difna are from Mannar. All these districts from the Northern Province have experienced significant challenges due to the ethnic conflict. Today, they continue to grapple with issues such as female-headed households with lack of support, unemployment, harassment, militarisation, and poverty. We have all heard about the challenges these communities face, but it’s also important to take stock of the ways in which these women are overcoming those challenges and redefining what empowerment looks like. We can no longer look at them as victims or those in need of help from more urban contexts, but as women who are asserting their agency and looking for creative solutions.
When reflecting on the experiences of these women in the political field, it appeared to me that they take a practical and pragmatic approach to politics. They are not entering the political field with high expectations of what they would be able to achieve nor are they going in with unrealistic perceptions of what the challenges would be like. This prepares them to a certain
extent to face the unique challenges of being women in this space and also manage the expectations of constituents. In a context where their male counterparts see women as emotional, impulsive, and perhaps unaware of worldly realities, many of these women are contradicting these perceptions. As Umachandra mentioned to me: “The gap between what I can do [in political office] and what I can’t do is a rather great one, and my task is to reduce that gap even a little bit.”
I was also intrigued by the creative ways in which these women addressed challenges they faced as women in politics. Because she was new to the Urban Council, and because she was a woman, Umachandra was often asked to be quiet and not share her opinions. She was also told to maintain her silence when she tried to engage during a council meeting on garbage collection and disposal. Undeterred by their bullying, Umachandra managed to rally a few more female Urban Council members to go on a research trip to a certain South East Asian country, funded by themselves, to understand more about effective garbage disposal. They returned with valuable insights and ideas to address the garbage collection and disposal problems in their area. She noted that this drew the attention of the council members and eventually the women were encouraged to participate in the discussions and decision-making. This type of bullying and discriminatory treatment of women is not uncommon. Leadership from women like Umachandra can set a new course for how women are treated in these spaces.
Something else that stood out to me about these women’s experiences was their continued engagement with their communities regardless of whether they won the election or not. Selvi from Jaffna talks about the extensive work she had done, amounting up to a million rupees, towards repairing roads, buildings, and agriculture. She shared: “When I moved to my husband’s village, everything was new. Then I asked myself, why am I just at home? Shouldn’t I go out? Shouldn’t I change my community?”
After 40-50 years of using sand roads, Selvi was able to build the first tar road in the community she lived in. She shared how she stood by the road with her husband at 11 p.m. in the night as the road was being constructed. But she also talked about having to have her husband stand beside her because it was not safe for her reputation to be standing on the road late at night.
Women in politics are often ridiculed and bullied into limiting themselves because of their gender. Despite being able to do great things for their communities, women still have to be home by a certain time and maintain certain gender stereotypes in order to survive within their communities. They also faced additional challenges during their campaign trails. “We did our own canvassing. There was no money from the party. My brothers supported me. No alcohol or anything. But what I saw was no matter how hard we [women] worked or how many days we spent canvassing, someone will come the night before and give money and alcohol to sway the voters. ‘Rowdyism’ – we can’t do that,” stated Maliny.
Maliny echoes the sentiments of many of these women who were frustrated about the kind of politics their male counterparts engaged in. As women they didn’t have the freedom of mobility at night, both due to cultural constraints and security and militarisation issues. Hence, the playing field was already skewed in favour of men. But these women found ways to work around it and continue doing the important work they are engaged in.
Although the experience of most Sri Lankan women in politics may be similar, the similarities are often superficial and surface level. For example, in Sri Lanka, most women in politics operate in a patriarchal space, however, northern Tamil women have the added scrutiny of living in a militarised society. This immediately makes their patriarchal experience of politics vastly different to that of a woman living in a different part of the country. The trauma of the ethnic conflict and having to constantly operate within a space of tension adds to these layered experiences. The experiences of these women are rich and include important lessons for all of us. We look to them for inspiration and leadership during a time when women’s presence in politics is significantly low. It is important that we continue to expand our understanding of women in politics and strive to become more inclusive.
(The writer is currently the Sri Lanka Project Coordinator for Everyday Peace Indicators. She has a background in Peacebuilding, Transitional Justice, and Gender Studies. She is passionate about working with women to advance their political and social engagement in Sri Lanka and sharing their experiences through storytelling.)