Fighters, victims and survivors: constructions of ethnicity, gender and refugeeness among Tamils in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a country torn apart by a prolonged civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant group fighting for a Tamil 'homeland' in the north and east of the country. Two extreme images of Tamil women have emerged: (1) aggressive women soldiers and suicide bombers in the LTTE; and (2) pitiful, poverty-stricken, dependent war victims in refugee camps.

In between these extremes many variations have developed, and men and women of different backgrounds are actively influencing these images. The various new identities have not replaced the earlier 'traditional' image of Tamil womanhood, which is still colouring gender discourse in everyday life. Feminist groups and women leaders have been struggling to oppose both the conservative discourse on Tamil womanhood, which restricts women to a domesticated, male-controlled life, and the womanhood ideal of the LTTE, which urges her to take up arms and offer herself for the nation.