International Women’s Day and respect for Women in Lanka

In reality, ninety percent of Sri Lankan women and girls have faced sexual harassment in public transport. One in four women report having experienced physical and/or sexual violence since age 15

Today we in Lanka join humankind the world over in celebrating the positive role played by women in life’s different spheres. The date of March 8 has its roots in Russian history. On February 23, 1913, Russian women protested against World War I and Vladimir Lenin declared March 8 as International Women’s Day (IWD) in 1922 to honour the Women’s role during the 1917 Russian Revolution. 
The day became a mainstream global holiday following its promotion by the United Nations in 1977. In our own country, over half the population is female.  Their contributions are significant, yet women are treated as second-class citizens. Perhaps it is by oversight, the day has not yet been considered sufficiently important to declare it a national holiday.  
In Lanka public holiday’s mark religious festivals, and the day we received freedom from British imperialism. Not to commemorate great events or heroic deeds. Just a few days ago our immediate past President in an interview on the TV channel ‘Al Jazeera’, expressed his devotion to the late queen as our past colonial ruler. 

Even though the country was bankrupted at the time, and our countrymen, women and children were literally starving, he could not avoid spending precious foreign exchange to be present at the event ‘of a much loved figure.’ With no disrespect to the titular ruler of Britain; much loved by whom in this country? 
With this type of mentality it is not so surprising, that despite giving the world its first Woman Prime Minister, respect for Women, for the role they play in our economy, the ‘menial chores’ they perform around homes, is often taken for granted. Sadly in these spheres women in Lanka have been blindsided. Neither their safety nor rights have shown no great progress. 
In reality, ninety percent of Sri Lankan women and girls have faced sexual harassment in public transport. One in four women report having experienced physical and/or sexual violence since age of 15! 
We have forgotten the fact that it is the women of our country who form the very backbone of the economy. Our female migrant workers, their sisters -the tea pluckers in the hill country- and the female garment workers in the sweatshops of our Free Trade Zones bring in the largest share of this country’s foreign exchange earnings.
Our economy is heavily reliant on remittances from migrant workers. A large portion of these remittances are sent by female domestic workers employed in the Middle-East. Yet these female workers receive no dignity in treatment from officialdom as they join the queue at the departure lounge at our airport. 
Witnessing these ladies being pulled out of the queues and sent hither and thither is a fairly common sight at our airports. This is despite the possession of valid travel documents –there is no respect for the role they play to keep the wheels of our economy turning or for the pain they bear when torn away from wailing young children who watch a mother depart.
Even scribes at media institutions pay less heed to these warriors. Their thoughts on ‘weighty matters of state’ or events taking place around us are of no consequence. We hardly read or hear the thoughts of a female tea plucker or of those numerous females planting paddy in our rice fields or from garment workers in the FTZs.
We now have a larger number of women in our parliament, yes it’s finally happening. The new ruling party in power has brought to the forefront larger numbers of female parliamentarians. Rather unfortunately though, the party has not been able to change the mind-set of some among its own male parliamentarians, as highlighted in this newspaper a few days ago.
This has been the bane of Lanka. As Lankans’, our views on Women, the importance of the multitude of tasks they perform has not changed too much. 
We need to recognise the vibrancy of Womanhood and the role it plays in our national development. As a country we will never be free, until our women are freed of the shackles of patriarchy which still governs the mentality of this country.