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“I hated unions,” says Sathya Vani, now Joint-President of Sri Lanka’s Domestic Workers’ Union (DWU). “My parents were part of a union, who did nothing for them. So for a long time I avoided trade unions.”
Vani’s parents work in a tea plantation in the Kandyian hill country. “We saw how our parents (...)
Sri Lankan NGOs and labour unions are pushing for regularisation of domestic labour: contracts, minimum wage, labour rights.
In 2019, the ILO commissioned a research study at the request of the Ministry of Labour regarding the formalization of domestic work in Sri Lanka. The Center for Women’s (...)
In the early 2000s, two alarming stories about the precarious and hazardous plights of domestic workers circulated the plantation community in the Kandy district, eventually reaching organizers at the Ceylon Workers Red Flag Union (RFU). The first was about the death of a domestic worker in a (...)
“Every day I would wake up at 5 AM and fall into bed, exhausted, around 11 PM. Most times I didn’t have the energy to even change my clothes. From the moment I woke up till the moment I slept, it was work, work, work all the time,” Shanthi* told Roar Media.
“I ate leftovers, after the family had (...)
A national debate is brewing around the imposition of the Family Background Report (FBR) that bans women with children under five years from migrating for work overseas. Despite being unconstitutional, violating a woman’s right to mobility, contravening Sri Lanka’s commitments to ratified (...)
After spending nine years waiting for the Marsoof Committee to complete deliberations on reforming the regressive laws, Muslim women and activists brace for more delays as conservative Muslim organisations band together with politicians from the community to try and water down the Committee’s (...)
We are witnessing large protests across the war-torn regions in the north and east, urging the Government to restrict the activities of microfinance companies offering loans to poor women at exorbitantly high interest rates. Women’s groups in other parts of the country are also voicing their (...)
“Fear Allah! Do not do injustice to women and girls in your own community!” was the plea on placards held by many women who stood near Parliament last week, opposing the decision by male Muslim MPs discussing the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) reform report with the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul (...)
The Government of Sri Lanka had planned, that effective from January 2018, all Sri Lankan citizens be required to carry a ‘smart’ e-NIC with biometric details (frontal facial photograph, fingerprints, iris scan), details of profession, address, phone numbers, date of birth, email and civil (...)
In this interview taking-off from the 2018 local government, Rohini Weerasinghe connects the experiences of women in politics to the oldest power structure in the world: patriarchy. She argues there is a correlation between the lack of recognition of women’s economic contribution and their (...)
In an alarming submission made to several parliamentarians and other conservative groups with regard to proposed amendments to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA), the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama (ACJU) has said that they agree with the Hadith “No people will ever prosper who appoint a (...)
First exiled from her country, Sri Lankan writer Sharmila Seyyid, has now been ‘raped’ and ‘killed’ online.
Fundamentalism knows no boundaries. In India, it was Perumal Murugan who announced the death of the writer in him. In Sri Lanka, writer Sharmila Seyyid was ‘raped’ and ‘murdered’ online on (...)
We, as women impacted by war and ongoing post-war violence in Sri Lanka and working on issues of truth and justice, call upon the Government of President Maithripala Sirisena to take immediate steps to address past violations and to initiate credible and independent investigations that lead to (...)
The participants of a South Asian Regional Conference on Women Political Rights organized by South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)’s Women Rights Campaign Group (women political leaders, women parliamentarians, civil society activists and human rights defenders of the South Asian (...)
Chief Justice (CJ) Shirani Bandaranayake is not only fighting for the rule of law; she is also forced to fight for feminism. Ms. Bandaranayake is the first woman to have earned the post of CJ, which she achieved without exploiting the prestige of parents or any other high profile connection. (...)
Women’s Action Network (WAN), as a collective of 11 women’s groups from the North and the East, is deeply concerned by the recent efforts to recruit women into the military in the Districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.
Post-war development has failed to provide the most basic needs for those (...)
‘Women are not just victims of war, as some aspects of their experiences are empowering and can be used as a resource for healing and transformation’.
War is a gendered process. Post war is no different. It may be a cliché to say that in Sri Lanka as elsewhere in the world, the most visible and (...)
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