{"id":215398,"date":"2020-12-18T19:16:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T13:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=215398"},"modified":"2020-12-24T15:46:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T10:16:27","slug":"prudent-sensitive-faithful-reimagining-the-sri-lankan-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/prudent-sensitive-faithful-reimagining-the-sri-lankan-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPrudent, Sensitive & Faithful\u201d: Reimagining The Sri Lankan Woman\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sanja de Silva Jayatilleka<\/a> –<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sanja De Silva Jayatilleka<\/p><\/div>\n

It completely misses the point, doesn\u2019t it? The Women\u2019s Bureau of Sri Lanka aspires in its Vision Statement to create \u201ca generation of prudent, sensitive and faithful women for Sri Lankan Society.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This institution which functions under the State Ministry of Women And Child Development, downsized under the current administration from a Cabinet Ministry, understands its central role to be one that prescribes the transformation of Sri Lankan women into an arbitrarily imagined model of womanhood in accordance with a set of values it unilaterally decides for 52% of the population of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

It has no idea that women are a long way from being dictated to be this that and the other. When did it become the State\u2019s business whether women were \u201cprudent\u201d? Why are they even thinking of spending tax payer money to make women \u201csensitive\u201d? How exactly is that measured anyway?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The cherry on the cake is that the Bureau aims to be the premier \u201cnational institution\u201d that makes women \u201cfaithful\u201d, in addition to the other two attributes. Such loose terms can be easily misunderstood. It shouldn\u2019t be surprised to find itself being told it has no right to intrude into issues of complex moral choices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I dare not ask if this is national policy in case the answer is yes! I would much rather hope that it is the frenzied outpouring of a zealous legislator or policy maker, who in his or her fervor forgot that women will demand to know who decides on these attributes, by what process, and how they plan to implement this vision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pity of it is that this vision statement may authentically represent the administration\u2019s self-image as a moralizing reformer which is determined to take us back to a perceived golden age when women knew their place, or die trying. It may all be part of the plot to establish a Virtuous Society for which it has its own Presidential task force. Judging by this, all the virtue seems to be envisioned on the female side. That would be in keeping with the hypocrisy displayed in general towards women.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: In 1995, nations of the world gathered together in Beijing, with more than 30,000 activists, representatives from 189 nations and came together to unanimously adopt the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, what the UN calls \u201cthe most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women\u2019s rights\u201d.<\/p>\n

In celebrating the 25th<\/sup> year of its adoption in New York, the UN reports that \u201cthis historic blueprint articulated a vision of equal rights, freedom and opportunities for women \u2013 everywhere, no matter what their circumstances \u2013 that continues to shape gender equality and women\u2019s movements worldwide.\u201d The Beijing Platform \u201cimagined a world where every woman and girl can exercise her freedoms and choices, and realize her rights, such as to live free from violence, to go to school, to participate in decisions and to earn equal pay for work of equal value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t this be more appropriate as a vision? Wouldn\u2019t it be far better to imagine the Sri Lankan woman, free from violence and harassment at home, in public transport and at work, educated and with equal opportunities, participating in policy making at every level of governance, empowered to have increased representation in Parliament including in the Cabinet, perhaps even heading a Ministry of Women\u2019s Affairs, so that she could express a vision in which all women have fair access to opportunities to contribute to society as equal citizens with equal access to resources and with the freedom to choose her own future?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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