Subha Wijesiriwardena (b. 1988) is a feminist activist, researcher, and communicator from Colombo. She has a degree in Communication Studies from the University of Bangalore.
Subha has worked at a diverse range of international and national feminist and development organizations to move the needle on gender justice, human rights, and freedom of expression. Most recently, Subha’s work has focused on building cross-movement strategies to challenge carceral and punitive laws, policies and practices, countering anti-gender and anti-democracy agendas, and defending and expanding space for activism.
Subha was a co-founder of a “Collective for Feminist Conversations” (2016-2021), a borderless, online/on-ground young feminist-led initiative based out of Colombo, which attempted to bring broader audiences into the fold of feminist histories, theories and practices through campaigns, discussions and gatherings.
As a researcher, Subha emphasizes qualitative research and story-telling aimed at filling historical epistemological gaps. Her research work has examined a range of issues concerning feminists, such as abortion, the intersection between gender, sexuality and the internet, and feminist debates about pornography.
Subha is the co-chair of the inaugural Advisory Committee for the Act Together for Inclusion Fund (ACTIF), a Canadian government-funded grant-making initiative to mobilize resources to LGBTIQ2S movements in Canada and around the world.
Subha has a background in the arts. She received traditional dance training and was a member of the Chitrasena Dance Company. She went on to work in theatre in Colombo for a decade (as an actor, producer and manager), and managed Mind Adventures Theatre Company (2010-2014), working on numerous immersive theatre productions with a political focus. In 2018, Subha produced Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke’s award-winning queer love-story, “The One Who Loves You So”, a production funded entirely from small donations. As an arts manager, she worked on an international literary festival and an international design festival in Sri Lanka, among other visual and performing arts events. In 2017, she was worked on Sri Lanka’s first Women of the World Festival (founded at the Southbank Centre, UK).
Subha has been writing online for almost twenty years, and wrote one of Sri Lanka’s earliest English-language blogs (est. 2005). Since then, her writing has been published online, and in print in Sri Lanka, India, the UK and Australia. She has written extensively about Sri Lankan politics, human rights, and gender, sexuality and technology.
Photograph: Ruvin de Silva (2018)
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Subha M Wijesiriwardena 