Fighters, Victims and Survivors: Constructions of Ethnicity, Gender and Refugeeness among Tamils in Sri Lanka

In: Journal of refugee studies, Band 12, Heft 3, S. 307-333

Abstract

Focuses on the interplay of ethnicity & gender in the changing discourses of "Tamil womanhood" in Sri Lanka. Two extreme images of Tamil women have emerged: (1) aggressive women soldiers & suicide bombers in the LTTE, the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant group fighting for a Tamil homeland; & (2) pitiful, poverty-stricken, dependent war victims in refugee camps. Many variations have developed, & men & women of different backgrounds are actively influencing these images, yet have not replaced the earlier traditional image of Tamil womanhood, which is still coloring gender discourse in everyday life. Feminist groups & women leaders have been struggling to oppose both the conservative discourse on Tamil womanhood, which restricts women to a domesticated, male-controlled life, & the womanhood ideal of the LTTE, which urges them to take up arms for the nation. Women refugees in Sri Lanka have increased their space for maneuver by themselves, defying deep-rooted values & images of womanhood & are practicing ideals that come very close to the Sri Lankan feminist discourse, according to which women can assert themselves in the public & the private sphere, defining & defending their own women's rights. 33 References. Adapted from the source document.