Farzana Haniffa

In this paper I argue that the manner in which piety is perceived and propagated among Muslims in Sri Lanka must be understood as located within the context of ethnic conflict and the polarization between ethnic groups that occurred in its wake. I explore the work of one Muslim women's…

This paper examines three instances of attempted rapprochement between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government in 1987, 2002 and 2005, and the inadequate response to the security and economic concerns of the Muslim minority community. The state's indifference to Muslim concerns has been due to the fact that minorities continue to be considered less than worthy citizens, and the conflict has been understood to concern only the state and the LTTE. Muslims' chosen methods of engagement in politics, and recent community choices regarding self-representation, through the ‘piety movement’, for instance, have also contributed to their exclusion. This paper argues that Muslims will need to find new ways of engagement with different levels of Sri Lankan civil and political society if they are to have their concerns addressed under the new political regime and changing social conditions within the country.

Issues that are prominent within the anti-Muslim hate discourse that pervaded Sri Lanka in recent years are the speed at which the Muslim community is increasing its numbers—they are said to become a majority in a few decades; as well as Muslim women’s dress- the hijab nikab and abhaya. Certain Muslim interlocutors’ own responses have included defending the hijab as protecting women from violence, and urging that the state institute measures to increase the Sinhalese population. Ironically the latter was also the position of the Bodu Bala Sena the group propagating anti- Muslim sentiment; and the government responded to the position and institutionalized it by way of a health ministry circular banning NGO programs in reproductive health. I look at the manner in which gender orders became reorganized in the aftermath of the state’s military victory over the rebel group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009 as a consequence of militarism. This reordering is reflected both in th...

... the sixties that referred to Tamil women within the liberation struggle: "Tamil mothers of the past sent their sons to war against injustice; mothers of today have gathered their sons to wage a similar war" De Alwis looks at the manner in which the figure of Vihara Maha Devi, the ...

This article outlining the rise of the BBS was written prior to the Sirisena victory at the Presidential elections of 2015 and before an end to the reign of the BBS was in sight. As such the article offers an insight into the BBS's moment of greatest popularity and success in the country and how helpless Muslim activists seemed in the face of this new phenomenon.

Extended Abstract
WOMEN, MEN AND WAR TALK: GENDERED NATURE OF PARLIAMENTARY SPEECH ON THE WAR. (Co authored with Kumudini Samuel)

Background:
Sri Lanka’s record with regards to the political participation of women remains abysmal even when compared with other South Asian countries. Since independence in 1948 there have been less than 5% of women in parliament at any given time.  In the current parliament too women remain severely under represented. Further, there is no discourse in Sri Lanka that recognizes the necessity of quotas as a temporary measure by which to increase women’s participation.  This paper is part of a larger study by the Women and Media collective that attempts to understand the gendered nature of parliamentary speeches and debates and the manner in which women continue to be absent in parliamentary discourse. The study will establish that the limited understanding of women demonstrated in the parliamentary speeches where women are mentioned has long standing policy implications for women in this country.

Objectives:

The objectives of the study are to
Understand the manner in which the war is framed in parliamentary debates about the ethnic conflict.
Inquire in to the manner in which women are mentioned in parliamentary speeches that are about the war.
Inquire in to the manner in which women’s roles are understood in instances where women are mentioned in parliamentary speeches about the war.
Assess the manner in in which women parliamentarians speak about women and the war.

Research methodology:

The paper uses selections from parliamentary debates spanning the years 2003- 2013. Special attention has been paid to budget speeches, speeches in the immediate aftermath of the military victory over the LTTE in May 2009, and questions to and responses from Minister of Women’s Affairs, Tissa Kayaliyadda regarding the war. The choice of material was done on the basis of the relevance of the speeches to the objectives that we were pursuing. For our analysis of the social and political context within which this parliamentary speech was occurring we used the text of the Mahinda Chinthanaya policy document of Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. For the analysis we interpreted the material using qualitative analytical techniques including content analysis, thematic analysis and discourse analyses.

Results/findings:
We were surprised by the very low frequency of references to women in parliamentary speeches and debates regarding the war  and considered this absence an important finding in our analysis as to the gendered nature of parliamentary speech on the war.  We also found that the war was  framed as something of great significance to Sri Lankan society. The significance was with regards to the success of Sri Lankan troupes in fighting terrorism, and the people’s mobilization in support for the war as a model for mobilizing around the issue of the economy. We found that the understanding of women in the debates was mainly in terms of being vulnerable – either as victims of war related violence, or as dependents of soldiers (as wives mothers or daughters). Women’s role in the family as providing both a reproductive function and a nurturing role was considered foremost in speeches about the war. The state in turn was portrayed in the role of care-giver and provider for women in the absence of male providers.

Conclusion


The many ways in which women’s lives are impacted by the conduct of war, include the loss of social safety nets and livelihood options due to the destruction brought about through the war. Little of this is reflected in parliamentarians comments on the war. Most parliamentarians’ framing of the war as necessary, positive and as a success story of the previous regime, precludes discussion of the above losses as well as the effects of war on society in general. Further, the framing of male soldiers, LTTE’s female ex-combatants and displaced women and children in parliamentary discourse are limited and attribute an extremely circumscribe role to women. The paper will argue that such an understanding in turn has substantial policy implications for how the state will view its’ responsibility towards female citizens—especially those affected by the conflict.

Issues that are prominent within the anti-Muslim hate discourse that pervaded Sri Lanka in recent years are the speed at which the Muslim community is increasing its numbers—they are said to become a majority in a few decades; as well as Muslim women’s dress- the hijab nikab and abhaya. Certain Muslim interlocutors’ own responses have included defending the hijab as protecting women from violence, and urging that the state institute measures to increase the Sinhalese population. Ironically the latter was also the position of the Bodu Bala Sena the group propagating anti- Muslim sentiment; and the government responded to the position and institutionalized it by way of a health ministry circular banning NGO programs in reproductive health. I look at the manner in which gender orders became reorganized in the aftermath of the state’s military victory over the rebel group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009 as a consequence of militarism. This reordering is reflected both in the anti Muslim rhetoric and the rolling back of important women friendly policies in the country. Writing on women’s experiences in Sri Lanka, however look mainly at the experiences of particular ethnic communities at the expense of a collective narrative of exclusion exploitation and misogyny. Exploring these developments this paper will also speculate as to why it is difficult to think outside the ethnic frames to understand the gendered nature of the post war moment.

Of the many disturbing developments in the aftermath of the June 2014 anti – Muslim violence in Aluthgama was the struggle over the narrative of what occurred, who was responsible and who should be considered culpable. In Aluthgama and Dharga town, Sinhala and Muslim families in communities that previously lived quite well together, were no longer speaking to each other, and their stories of what happened what the triggers were, and who the perpetrators were did not reference one another. What was also clear was that in the narrativisation of what happened during the riot, in its aftermath, several different notions of community and citizenship became mobilized. The principle ethnicizing imperative of the official narrative, was later supplemented by the video clips and press statements by representatives of the Jathika Hela Urumaya and commandeered a sense of Sinhalaness under siege. This sensibility was compounded by the international condemnation that very clearly articulated the event in terms of an anti Muslim pogrom perpetrated by hardline Sinhala Buddhists.  In the aftermath of the riots, the local people drew from and participated in the creation of a narrative that understood community not as formed of bonds of everyday interaction but something else. Yet for many the links of everyday community too were difficult to let go of.  My paper will explore stories of Aluthgama as they appeared in both social media and traditional media in the month following the events, and juxtaposition these with the narratives of  affected persons in Dharga town, Aluthgama.

The northern Muslims together with all protracted IDPs displaced prior to 2008 became a low priority caseload for return and resettlement assistance in the aftermath of the ‘end’ of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009. Framed in terms of an ethics of ‘greatest need’ connected only to funding availability, all old IDPs lost out in the resettlement process. This paper attempts to decentre this idea of economic limits and humanitarian need by discussing the manner in which such ideas of ‘greatest need’ actually emerge from discourses about victimhood that are part of an ethical humanitarian project to which local politics are irrelevant. This paper will show, however, that these initiatives consistently intersect with local power hierarchies and local ideas of legitimacy and belonging. Therefore, this paper will look at the manner in which the war related victim discourse of international humanitarianism, helped to exacerbate northern Muslim’s own marginality and continued exclusion from the north. This paper will also look at the manner in which victimhood narratives are mobilized in Sri Lanka by electoral politics and displaced IDP activists themselves, and will speculate about the efficacy of the victim identity for political and social transformation during this time of transition in Sri Lanka.

This paper looks at the manner in which the war related victim discourse of International Humanitarianism, exacerbated northern Muslims’ marginality and exclusion from the north of Sri Lanka. The northern Muslims together with all protracted IDPs displaced prior to 2008 became a low priority case load for return and resettlement assistance after the ‘end’ of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009. Framed in terms of an ethics of ‘greatest need’ connected only to funding availability, all Old IDPs lost out in the resettlement process. This paper attempts to decentre this idea of economic limits and humanitarian need by discussing the manner in which such ideas of ‘greatest need’ actually emerge from discourses about victimhood that are part of an ethical humanitarian project to which local politics are irrelevant.  As this paper will show, however, these initiatives consistently intersect with local power hierarchies and local ideas of legitimacy and belonging and have helped institutionalize Muslim exclusion. Looking also at the manner in which victimhood narratives are mobilizsed in Sri Lanka by electoral politics, and displaced IDP activists themselves, this paper will speculate about the efficacy of the victim identity for political and social transformation during this time of transition in Sri Lanka.

Originally published as Farzana Haniffa, 'Conflicted Solidarities? Muslims and the Constitution-making Process of 1970-72' in Asanga Welikala (Ed.) (2012) The Sri Lankan Republic at 40: Reflections on Constitutional History, Theory and Practice (Colombo: Centre for Policy Alternatives): Ch.5; also available at: http://republicat40.org

The Law and Society Trust, together with three northern Muslim partner organizations set up a Citizens' Commission to investigate the expulsion of Muslims from the Northern Province by the LTTE in October 1990.
The objective of the exercise was to produce authoritative documentation of the expulsion and its consequences that is sanctioned by the community, and to list the community's grievances through a document endorsed by a Commission consisting of eminent civil society actors.
The Commission's investigations looked in to the history of the expulsion, the experience of two decades of displacement, and the problems of resettlement.

When a country anticipates transition from a state of war to a state of peace through a political settlement, accountability for human rights abuses conducted during that time of war become a difficult question that the polity must grapple with. In an attempt to contribute to that still emerging debate in the Sri Lankan context this extended essay explores local human rights approaches to the transition that Sri Lanka is currently anticipating and previous moments of transition—the time of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)’s armed insurrection of the late 1990s and the state’s violent repression of it, for instance-- that the country has been through. The essay looks at four initiatives, the work of Kalape Api, the Citizen’s Commission on Border Villages, the Women’s Peace Mission, and the National Vision document. It looks at what these initiatives attempted to achieve, the challenges that they encountered and what their experiences say about the conditions within which human rights work in Sri Lanka is conducted. The essay highlights essential lessons from these initiatives that should inform future transitional justice processes in the country.

This essay was commissioned by the International Center for Transitional Justice through the Sri Lanka Transitional Justice Working Group. It was published in 2006.