In this article I explore the long academic discourse between Peter Schalk and a number of feminist scholars regarding the way that the Sri Lankan Tamil rebel movement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has constructed the image of female fighters within its ranks in order for them to be acceptable to conservative Tamil society in Sri Lanka. I contribute to the discussion by proposing a new argument based on my fieldwork. I reveal what happens if forces of social change (in this case international non-governmental organizations) do not make an effort to link their new initiatives to the traditional concepts and values of a given culture. In order to present a comprehensive line of thought, I explore the traditional Sri Lankan Tamil gender stereotype, and I consider the LTTE movement, its female cadres and the qualities attributed to them by the movement. In support of my argument, I present selected data collected during my two years of field research in Sri Lanka (conducted between 2005 and 2008). I recount the social upheaval that occurred in the East of the island as a consequence of the devastation caused both by the tsunami and the massive conflict between the LTTE and government forces, which in turn led to a significant increase in the number of international organizations employing local Tamil women.
This article describes how the understanding of gender roles in Sri Lankan Tamil society has changed during the past three decades. The shift could be ascribed to the quarter-century long armed conflict between the Tamil Tigers’ separatist movement and the Sri Lankan government. The author presents a brief overview of the social changes related to the shift in notions of gender roles, such as changes in marital life patterns, coding of appropriate female behavior, and understanding of “female space”. The article goes on to highlight the phenomenon of Tamil female fighters within the separatist movement and their future demobilization. Lastly the author touches on a topic which could become an important issue for Sri Lanka over the coming years; the impact of the inevitable demobilization of the government armed forces and its consequences for the processes of female emancipation in Sri Lanka.