Women have partaken in large numbers in various armed struggles
Women have partaken in large numbers in various armed struggles around the world for about 40-50 years. Invariably women have joined these armed struggles a few years after the armed group had been formed and the struggle had been waged by the males. Women’s emancipation is often promoted by such groups.
One reason, of course, is to increase female recruits which some emphasise is the main reason. They also insist that whatever women gain during such participation in the armed struggle is gradually lost once the armed struggle comes to end, even if it is a successful end. In the case of the Tamil Tiger armed movement the end is alleged to be genocide; thus the gains that were made by women is lost forever. That is how most people would perceive this end. Does it have to be lost?
The overarching Tamil narrative on the Tamil Tiger women is military focused. Masked by this military focused Tamil Tiger narrative is a narrative on women empowerment. This narrative was strongest within the Tamil Tiger movement compared to what existed before and what exists now in the Eelam Tamil society.
It is also important to acknowledge that it will take several decades, if at all, to achieve what was achieved with respect to women within the Tamil Tiger run Tamil Eelam defacto-state which is now destroyed. This alone is a good reason to draw out from the writings of Tamil Tiger women that what is relevant to contemporary times. This is the aim of this work.
A selected writings in the form of poetry and short story that are inspirational for contemporary women are included here. All the poetry appear first followed by the short stories. This selection is deemed to convey five major themes which when internalised by women can be inspirational for social justice struggles.
These five themes convey narratives on: 1) the feats of the women and the price they paid; 2) the hurdles they acknowledge in their struggle; 3) the positive societal outcomes of their struggle; 4) the fire within which took them to those heights and above all 5) the call to rise up for social justice struggles.
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