Author: subhamw
-
Transcript from Yvonne Jonsson Memorial (27 November 2019, Colombo)
(I was asked by the family and friends of Yvonne Jonsson to share some thoughts on the evening of a memorial for her, organized in Colombo. Below is the slightly edited transcript of that short address. Here is a statement by women’s rights activists for additional context.) [Name and intro] I am an activist and…
-
Podcast: Consent, Pleasure and Danger
‘This episode examines why we need to reimagine prevailing ideas around consent, pleasure and danger as embedded in our laws, social norms, and feminist movement politics. The discussion explores why pleasure needs to be moved from the margins of feminist agendas to be viewed as integral to dismantling patriarchy; why the connections between pleasure and…
-
Private Parts: Obscenity and Censorship in the Digital Age
Image description: Illustration of body and various objects. Artist: Umaimah Damakka From GenderIT.org (Excerpt) Earlier this year, the telecommunications minister of Bangladesh declared a ‘war on pornography’, blocking access to around 20,000 websites and banning TikTok, the Chinese-owned video production and sharing app. The move came after a petition citing ‘obscenity’ was filed by a…
-
The Men I Know: A ‘young feminist’ from the third world speaks from inside the #MeToo moment(s)
(Excerpt) Preface In October 2017, I said ‘#MeToo.’ I did it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These were my words: ‘Me too. As a child. As an adult. By men I know and men I don’t know. More than once. More than twice.’ This piece is not about the everyday sexual harassment we face; not…
-
In a Sea of Red (JVP Rally: 01 Nov 2018)
I made some quick and immediate reflections after the large UNP rally last Tuesday the 30th of October. I attended the JVP meeting at the Nugegoda supermarket last Thursday, the 1st of November, and wanted to do the same. It was well-attended; an organic turn-out only (no people ‘brought in’ for this meeting) so I…
-
When We Marched (30 October 2018)
There is a constitutional coup in Sri Lanka. There is much more about it at Groundviews, but you can start here if you like. Today, we marched in the thousands in the country’s capital and commercial centre, Colombo. This is a response to things I am reading on social media this evening. (EDITS made re.…
-
Where have all the queer women gone?: An Editorial for GenderIT
(Commissioned and originally published by GenderIT.org in December 2017.) How the stories of movements for queer liberation are told is a historically complicated thing. What and who constitute the gay rights movement is a perennial question to which we know now clearly that there is no one answer. There is no homogeneous ‘LGBT’ community in…
-
Intergenerational feminisms & sustaining our radical movements: Keynote at UAF-AP Launch (Transcript)
(Keynote address delivered at the launch of Urgent Action Fund Asia Pacific, 24 October 2017, Colombo, held in memory of Sunila Abeysekera: 1952 – 2013.) It is an immense, humbling almost overwhelming honour to be standing here in front of you today. The realization of the Asia Pacific chapter of Urgent Action Fund is the…
Subha M Wijesiriwardena 