Editorial

Security

Politics

World

Letters

Sports

Obituaries

Archives

by Jayanthi Liyanage

International Women's Day is just around the corner. Once again, concerns of inequality voiced by women of Sri Lanka throughout the year will be brought into focus on this day.

March 8 is International Women’s Day

During a period when women from both the North/East and the South are in the process of re-integration into a life of normalcy after protracted conflict, the success and continuity of this process relies greatly on the images of women the media projects back to them and the rest of the society. In this context, some interesting issues were highlighted by local and foreign women participants at a workshop on "conflict reporting", that the Young Asia Television conducted with the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) recently.

The role of women in the peace process, a hotly pursued topic of debate at the forum, naturally focussed on how media set its tone, frame and contexualised stories of women, to women seeking information for getting back to peaceful living.

The forum argued that in a consumerist context where rather than the censor, the market was the determinant factor of news, the male participants often undermined the fact that women are an important part of the audience. And women's contribution to national debates was not adequately recorded.

Crucial

"The female element is not a side show and what they think of crucial national issues such as demilitarisation is necessary not only for democracy but because other perspectives too are required for resolving conflict and perpetuating peace," they said. As an example of possible undermining, the forum mentioned women's weeklies in Sri Lanka which commenced with a female editor but later shifted to a male editor, on the presumption, justly or unjustly, that "men can raise circulation," by which process serious concerns of women tend to become submerged under financial priorities.

Then again, it was pointed out that women sub-editors too have been responsible for gender-insensitive editing, and being "sensitive" applied not only to women's issues but any issue under debate. "Who do you assume to be in the deciding gallery?," was the other aspect raised. "Are they only the politicians and the middle and upper middle classes? Do we ever ask adequately, the ordinary women, who cannot speak English, how they are coping with re-integration?"

Describing how to avoid tinder-box definitions so as to refrain from demonising and institutionalising sides to a violence, the forum cited a recent reporting of the "belt issue" which wrongly contexualised the notion that where army soldiers and LTTE women cadres are concerned, violence was natural. "This is not democratising but shifting the narrative." And the debate took a new turn when a participant remarked on a possible identity crisis within the LTTE women cadres in the process of re-integration into civilian living.

Commenting on the issue, Dr. Selvie Thiruchandran, Executive Director, Women's Research and Education Centre, notes, "Obviously they would face problems. They are going to feel bad at the end of a war in which they were involved in violence. Now that the nationalistic consciousness is withdrawn from them, no more can they fight for a cause. So when they sit back and think of it, obviously they are going to be traumatised as there is truly going to be a vacuum in their lives."

"I was at a meeting the other day when I could make out the LTTE women by their military dress," she adds. "But the men were in their normal dress. Women stick to that identity of dress they don't want to give up as it gives them a status in society."

Dr. Thiruchandran points out, "All over the world, after a liberation struggle, women have gone back home to take up wifely duties and household work while men fit into the social and political roles. This should not happen here and the LTTE, the state and donor agencies must pay special attention to their rehabilitation and give them the dignity of life they deserve."

Wherever there is a debate of women's issues, the current low percentage (4%) of women in local politics is invariably brought to discussion. The general feeling is that though women are in many spheres, only a few reign in decision-making positions.

"I am very concerned that the male domain of politics will have to be broken," says Dr. Thiruchandran, adding "The Women's Committee for Peace was appointed because women have a role to play in that respect."

Contribution

"Yardsticks of membership numbers or the success of orthodox tactics of disorder such as public protests are not the best gauge" to judge women's contribution, states Dr. Neloufer De Mel in her book, "The Nation's Narrative." This aptly fits the words of Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy sometime back, "They become cogs in a wheel of someone else's designs and plans.

They are the consumers and not the producers of the grand political project."

"Feminists and the women's movement have taken a stand against sexual and domestic violence," says Dr. Thiruchandran, adding that in that sense, they have an inherent capability to work against war and violence and an important role to play in peace.

Although gender aggregates point to women taking part in many spheres, a woman activist, researcher and lawyer of Centre for Women's Research points out, they are often taken for granted. "Her economic and other contributions within the family often go unacknowledged while the control of finance lies with the men." She points out that rather than the often prolific victim or the destroyer, the two roles in which we have seen women being portrayed in conflict, the media should now focus more on their role as brokers of peace, or in other words, catalysts of social change, promoting positive and more socially-productive images. "Even while being sexually harassed in a bus, she is not always a victim. She is able to overcome."

"In war, many women adopted new activist roles," says Prof. Sitralega Maunaguru of Batticaloa. "They became providers for families, assuming sole responsibility for family welfare. And they invented new and innovative ways to face their situation."

And now that the war is over and men are coming back home, "To change the negative image of women in society in the post conflict Sri Lanka, it is necessary to adopt a gendered and rights-based approach, when designing development policies and plan for the war-affected north east," she advises, adding, "Resettlement plans need to take into account in particular, the vulnerability of widows and female headed households in allocation of lands.

And women should be encouraged to participate in the planning and reconstruction of their settlements, so that they can help shape the development of local infrastructure."

Pearle Stevens, who has worked with women in the North/East speaks of the "culture of silence" still prevalent among our women which tends to perpetuate their oppression. "In Sri Lanka, there is a place for women if only they are motivated enough to take the lead."

It would also seem, as voiced by many women activists over the years, that women need to internalise positive images about themselves through a vocabulary of persuasion and get over the passive and non-confrontational images absorbed through media advertisements.

It is indeed a battle over attitudes and media and advertising could do much to encode positive meanings of gender-equity in social hierarchy in the manner they bring in information and entertainment to women audiences.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager