(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… Read More The Men I Know: A ‘young feminist’ from the third world speaks from inside the #MeToo moment(s)
(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… Read More Intergenerational feminisms & sustaining our radical movements: Keynote at UAF-AP Launch (Transcript)
This is the transcript for the short talk I delivered at the event South Asian Feminisms: A MEMORIAL FOR LALA RUKH, hosted by A Collective for Feminist Conversations and Women and Media Collective, in Colombo on 23 August 2017. The bulk of it includes an excerpt from an essay titled Forging a New Political Imaginary:… Read More South Asian Feminisms: A Memorial for Lala Rukh, 23 August 2017 (Transcript)
Feminism is the only real way to challenge sexism; when we reject feminism, we play right into its hands. You would be surprised at the amount of messages I get from women (writing to say they so agree with something I have written) which begin with ‘I am not a feminist, but…’. There are some… Read More It’s Really Time We Stopped Rejecting Feminism
Below are some notes and observations about how, why and when we choose to speak and what we choose to say on social media – but also in general. This is about how we respond to injustice, and how we respond to those who respond to injustice – and while specifically about recent events,… Read More Holding Space and Speaking: Why, When, How We Say the Things We Say About Injustice
I am astounded; the government has called off this year’s ‘Victory Parade’ and no one is really talking about it. Why are we not talking about it? Why isn’t everyone talking about it? Why aren’t we all so very glad? In an interview with the Sunday Observer, our present Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena — why… Read More May 18: We Have a Lot to Mourn
This post has been a long time coming. It has taken many shapes and been many versions of itself. Now I am back home in Sri Lanka, where all the nuances of our lives in this place and belonging to this place somehow pull and tug simultaneously, I think it’s time to say it… Read More Ethical Divides: ‘This Divided Island’ and ‘The Seasons of Trouble’
Today, on the day I leave India, I thought it would be nice to share this picture, which was shared via my mother’s friends on Facebook a few days ago. This is the great South Asian feminist sisterhood, as we know it, circa 1986. My amazing mother Sunila Abeysekera, wears possibly biggest smile in the… Read More Leaving / Arriving
Invoking I’ve found it’s easiest to invoke my mother’s spirit when my heart is breaking. I am young. I am in love; heartbreak is common. I follow some simple steps: I turn off all the lights except the one in the bathroom. I take a long, hot shower; hot, hot, where the heat sears… Read More In My Mother’s Skin (A Personal History)
Sometimes, a girl has to buy herself flowers, the smell of them will fill the house, she will like looking at them, she will take pride in arranging them, she will like how they light up the lonely kitchen, how the morning sun falls on each mysterious petal, And while, like her mother before her,… Read More Sometimes, a girl has to buy herself flowers
