(Photograph by Pradeep Jeganathan)I first directly met Dr. Malathi during a course I took at the University of Colombo where she taught a segment on women inconflict, but I had been reading her work and hearing her speak long before that. I remember having to stifle a squeal when I saw her name in our course material and spending most ...

(This piece was first published in the COFEM blog here. The Coalition of Feminists for Social Change (COFEM) is an advocacy collective of thought leaders, activists, practitioners and academics working globally to end violence against women and girls)The opening event of the MenEngage Ubuntu Symposium took place in November 2020 and COFEM participated in the Intersectional Feminist Movements Plenary. This ...

(This piece was first published in the COFEM blog here and was co-authored alongside Priya Dhanani and Sophie Namy. The Coalition of Feminists for Social Change (COFEM) is an advocacy collective of thought leaders, activists, practitioners and academics working globally to end violence against women and girls)With the murder of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery, the time has ...

(This piece was originally published on the Minor Matters Sri Lanka blog here. The header from the original piece has been included below)Over some months last year, I had the privilege of being a part of a Working Group that helped develop this resource – a Digital Citizenship Toolkit, focusing on areas I have been working on such as cyber ...

(Adapted from a thread posted on Twitter which can be seen here)The energy and rapport you build with a team matters now more than ever. I have found this particularly true working in activism, advocacy and other work that requires so much emotional labour. It will also matter now to other industries as we move towards working more extensively as ...

(This piece was first published digitally by Cosmopolitan Sri Lanka here. Images, headings and formatting from the original have been included)Image Credit: Ricky De SilvaAs lockdowns, curfews, social-distancing, and more become our new reality, one more buzzword needs to be added to the list! You guessed it – ‘working from home’. Where possible, organizations worldwide have been scaling down their ...

(This piece was first published in the COFEM blog here. The Coalition of Feminists for Social Change (COFEM) is an advocacy collective of thought leaders, activists, practitioners and academics working globally to end violence against women and girls)With the spread of COVID-19, organizations worldwide have been scaling down their physical offices and asking employees to work from their homes. For ...

As concerns around the spread of COVI-19 in Sri Lanka it is likely that many more companies and organizations will have us working from home for at least a few days of the week. At the very least more meetings will happen online and not in person. For almost 5 years now I have worked as a freelance consultant working ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning)As I pen this week’s column, movements in Sri Lanka’s political sphere are heating up and moving ahead. Rallies, meetings, and media frenzies are all the rage as we build up to the presidential election. In this time, it seems prudent to reflect on important periods past ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning)Last week, I was browsing through a copy of The Journal of Gender and Sustainable Development published by the Centre for Gender Studies, University of Kelaniya. To my dismay, I came across an article titled “An Overview of Feminism in Philosophy”. The piece in my opinion is ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning) Perhaps one of the hallmarks of the conversations surrounding gender on social media is “#MeToo”. Everyone has heard about it, many have posted using it, people have many opinions on it, and it has even made its way into pop culture and colloquial language in myriad ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning) Last week, social media was aflame with expressions of horror and disbelief at a sponsored post that was found on Instagram feeds. Captioned “Rediscover innocence”, the post advertised a medical service being offered by the “London Anti-Aging Medical Clinic” called (in their words) virginity repair or ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning)Since 1953, across the globe, several women have risen in political power to leave their mark on the political histories of their nations and continue to do so.This trend is especially evident in the last few decades, with women including former US Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning)As someone who identifies as a feminist, I often find myself in conversations that ask me questions about my own ideals and how I believe them to be feminist. Feminism is often treated like a religion – you can be asked to defend ideals and interpretations of others ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning) Rush Limbaugh first used the term “feminazi” in his 1992 book “The Way Things Ought to Be”, defining “obnoxious feminists” as feminazis. The Oxford Dictionary defines a feminazi as “a radical feminist”. Feminazi is commonly used in reference to a person that advocates female dominance ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning) In 1973, a ruling was passed in the US Supreme Court that changed the face of abortion access. In the now famous Roe vs. Wade case, the court ruled that Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution provides a fundamental “right to ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning) Over the last few weeks, among other discussions, we saw women’s rights being used as a common rhetoric to justify often racist or nationalist narratives. This is not new – women’s bodies, our rights, and lives have all too often been a battleground upon which these ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning) Hidden ripplesAs the weeks pass by following the devastating Easter Sunday terror attacks, we see a heightened state of security rise in Sri Lanka. As it was pre-2009, checkpoints and members of the forces have sprung up all over the city. This requires people to have ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning) As we try to heal and recover from this painful time, a recent conversation with some fellow feminists comes to mind. We talked about the women that came before us and what we learnt from them. We reflected on the strength of movements and how ...

(This piece first appeared as part of a weekly column for The Sunday Morning) Let’s talk to our childrenThe last week has been a difficult one, to say the least, for all Sri Lankans, both here and at home. Many people, including me, feel a growing sense of despair and fear as we watch and consume the endless news cycles. ...