Sri Lankan women eager to join politics

It seems that the political world around the globe is in a flux. From Washington DC to the developing countries in the world, no one seems happy with the current ruling lot and wishes to play one’s due role. The situation in Sri Lanka is no different where
even women have started realizing the fact that their destinies lied there in their own hands. And that participating in elections and representing in the elections was not a sole right of the elite classes of the society.

Recently, in an interview, a Sri Lankan Muslim woman expressed her wish to take part in upcoming elections as she deemed insertion of fresh and new blood into the country’s politics as necessary.

The Woman, who happens to be a Muslim leader and who wishes to participate in the provincial elections, has 3 children. First two of them were twins of 15 years old. The next one was a 12 year boy.
She married an Indian guy from Kannya Kuamary and referred him as “Made in India”; first introduced to him over phone while she had been working in Saudi Arabia as a house maker of a Saudi elite family. She worked there for 10 years. She came back to Batticaloa
in 1991.

She came to politics because she thought “a change is needed and it’s just the matter of time”. She could finish her O’level only and stopped there as it was costly. She wanted to ensure education, particularly higher education, for women. She also addressed
that the employment opportunity for women was very low. If a good number of women could be Member of Parliament, then they could speak for the women and their rights. If women were economically solvent then they would be able to buy their stuffs according
to their need.

Even in her Saudi period, she had gone through different levels of struggle. Once she was falsely convicted for stealing. Then she was sent back to Sri Lanka. She again managed to go there and got same job in another household. She spoke in favor of women’s
education and gathered like-mined women to share their thoughts in Saudi Arabia.

She also informed us that there were four female candidates for the upcoming provincial election. Among them two were Tamil and two were Muslim. She also shared that once she met a Muslim minister (male) who discouraged women’s participation in politics.
According to him women should concentrate solely on housework. She thought if there was sufficient job opportunity for women locally, then they need not go abroad and life might be easier. She also expressed her fear of regrouping and reorganization of LTTE
and the war.

From 1983 at several occasions she tried to build peace during war. She thought that there existed a rigid relationship between groups involved in politics and politicians were not willing to solve the problem with sincerity.

She also professed that in politics there should not be any place for a dynasty.

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Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Dec 7 2011. Filed under Politics, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry