Do Women Have A Place In Sri Lanka?
By Hiyanthi Peiris –May 29, 2015
Hiyanthi Peiris
“A girl is first under the protection of her father, then under the protection of her husband, then under the protection of her son and then she dies.”
At first sight, this seems like a very innocent concept. It encourages familial love, protection of women and is overall the right sentiment to propagate. However, notice that the woman is never given her own agency- instead she is always discussed in a position of relational identity to a male.
In 2012, the Delhi Gang rape got everyone talking. Jyoti, who would later come to be known as Nirbhaya (fearless), was gang raped at around 10pm in the night in public transportation in New Delhi. Her case, despite the existence of many other cases of gang rape was used as the rallying point for India to make a stance against rape. This is because Jyoti’s story is quite difficult to construe as one in which she was “asking for it” although many people did try to construe it that way too[1]. Jyoti was what Indian and South Asian culture loves to call a “good” girl- she was a hard working medical student, who was working on little sleep to excel in her exams, was out and about accompanied by a male presence and not by herself, with an inspirational story about overcoming poverty and struggles, whose only crime against culture was that she was out “late” at night. This is why India was quick to react and make her the face of the struggle against sexual abuse of women. However, what about the girls who were raped or sexually assaulted while they were committing the so-called heinous offenses of traveling alone and dressed “indecently.”
Similar to what happened in India, a 17 year old student, Vidhya, from Jaffna was raped and killed by 9 individuals. She was a student in school uniform, and was abducted and raped on her way to school. Although her case was initially not given enough attention to, the protests in the North ensured that justice was served. However, there were some seriously shameful posts and articles being made about how the North was simply causing a scene about nothing. The fact of the matter is that the North is still struggling to get back on their feet after the war- they are struggling to hold on to their identity, language, culture and reclaim what was once theirs, while the government struggles to help them and every other victim of the war. The least we can do is to be sympathetic to their needs, rather than dismiss them.
