A continuum of participation: rethinking Tamil women’s political participation and agency in post-war Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

In post-war contexts, attention is given to women’s participation and barriers to their participation in formal processes (for example, peace talks, economic initiatives, and elections). Yet, women have engaged in various activities to exercise collective and individual agency to impact political participation. This article examines how Tamil women’s political participation in post-war Sri Lanka exists along a continuum, from formal participation within state structures and party politics to informal community participation. Scholarship about Tamil women’s political participation is framed within discourses of “militants,” “ex-combatants,” “political mothers,” or “victims.” Using narrative interviews, we argue that – based on their awareness of unequal gendered power relations, structures, and norms impacting their lives in post-war Sri Lanka – Tamil women in Mannar exercise agency to challenge these constraints and promote a broader transformative political arena. Some women attempt to expand the agency of others and to promote a collective voice through which women can be better represented in politics. Drawing on feminist international relations and gender and development knowledge, this study demonstrates how political agency is constituted within informal arenas, disrupting masculinist assumptions about who is considered a political actor and what counts as political agency by examining the spectrum of political participation in post-war contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Political participation
• Sri Lanka
• post-war
• gender
• Tamil women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We are not assessing the outcomes of women’s participation. We were guided by our interviewees to see participation as a way of addressing intersecting gender, ethnic, economic, and political inequalities in their communities.

2 This reservation was first proposed in 1997 by the People’s Alliance government as a part of a broader set of constitutional reforms.

3 The fieldwork was carried out with the assistance of interpreters. Ethics approval was gained from Monash University Human Research Ethics committee.

4 Names have been changed to protect women’s anonymity.

5 Sivaloganathan Vidya (also known as Vithya) was an 18-year-old schoolgirl who was abducted, gang raped, and murdered while cycling to school. She attended Pungudutivu School in Kaytes (Northern Province). Residents of her village tied one of the perpetrators to a tree to hand over to the police but he was untied by a police officer.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Celeste Koens

Celeste Koens completed her Masters of International Development Practice at Monash University and is currently a Project Evaluation and Research Officer for Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS).

Samanthi J. Gunawardana

Samanthi J. Gunawardana is a Senior Lecturer in Gender and Development and a member of the Gender, Peace and Security Centre at Monash University.