As International Women's day is celebrated this, year, Sugirtharkala argues that the struggle for sexual equality continues, even where earlier victories were secured many years ago
March 8 is International Women's day, The day is marked every year, around the world to remind everyone of the fight against the oppression of women.
The day has its origins from a landmark event on the March 8, 1857, when women workers of textile factories in the United States organised a successful strike against sexual segregation, demanding 10 hours of work per day and equal pay to that of a fellow male workers.
In 1910, a German Socialist Party activist, Clara Zetkin, proposed at the 2nd Socialist Women conference in Copenhagen that March 8 be celebrated internationally. The conference also demanded voting rights for the women. The following year it was celebrated for the first time in Austria, Denmark and Germany.
However the 53 years between 1857 and 1910 weren't without change. Struggles for women rights, including the right to vote, erupted in many parts of the world, in the form of women movements.
A women rights movement formed in France in 1882 with the support of Victor Hugo. The women's movements campaigning for voting rights for women were launched in Britain and the USA in 1868 and 1869 respectively.
In 1905, when the women's freedom movement organised a meeting in Manchester to discuss the rights of women, leading activists of the movement including Dame Christabel Panhurst were arrested by the police.
The Panhurst family is still remembered for their efforts to secure voting rights for the women.
Emileline Panhurst and her daughters Christabel (1880-1958) , Sylivia (1882-1960) and Adel (1885-1961) were involved in many campaigns and were jailed many times.
Emily Darvinson from the women liberation movement of Britain killed herself in protest at the inequality between men and women by throwing herself under horses in a state procession.
In Sri Lanka, during the colonial period, the so-called leaders of independence movements were not in favour of giving voting rights to women either.
Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan who later built the famous Ramanathan ladies college, Chunnakam too was against the idea of giving equal status to women. Ms.Nasam Saravanamuttu was the first Tamil women elected for the then state council. She was elected from the Colombo North constituency in 1932, a landmark event in the history of the South Asian region.
Today in Tamil Eelam, over 3000 women have rallied behind an organisation in the struggle for their rights. This an important development in the modern history of women's struggle in the South Asian region.
While the men in Tamil Eelam fight for the political rights, the women are also battling against social oppression and mythical oppressive beliefs in a society. It is not an exaggeration to say that the women's fight against their social oppression is the hardest.
A women's liberation struggle is an important part of any national liberation struggle. But what precisely is women's liberation? It is securing the freedom for women from the State's oppression, social discrimination and economic dependency on men.
The Women Front of the Liberation Tigers battles intensely on these three fronts.
The awakening of Tamil women and their significant participation in the Tamil national liberation struggle gives a new dimension to the history of Tamil women. The women fighters contribute to all sections of the liberation movement.
They provide their contributions in traditional male preserves such as driving heavy military vehicles, operating all sorts of modern and heavy weaponry, working on military espionage, joining the elite naval force and underwater diving force.
By sharing duties equally with their male counterparts the women demonstrate that they have reached equal status with men. These development brought a quick change in the largely conservative Tamil society's dealings with women.
The women's wing of Sea Tiger unit, the elite naval force of the LTTE was formed in March 1992. Today, the members of this unit operate fast attack boats powered by 150-200 horse power engines with competence.
The Women's Front of the Liberation Tigers (WFLT) was set up in 1990 by the women members of the LTTE. The WFLT works on many issues in the social and political development of women in Tamil Eelam. The effect on their activities can be noticed by the recent change in the society's perception on issues like the remarriage of widows and women's involvement in self-satisfactory economic development.
After a long struggle for the equal rights, women in the industrialist countries now enjoy basic human and political rights. However the these don't solve all of their problems. The women in these countries face oppression in various different forms.
Sexual harassment in work places, problem in sharing responsibilities among working couples, the traditional belief in branding of jobs according to gender (e.g.: child care for women and breadwinning for man) are some of the ongoing problems.
The plight of ordinary women living in nations in armed occupation like in Tamil Eelam and Kurdistan are the worst. Their voice for help can't be heard through the military oppression.
I had an opportunity to meet a young women who came as a refuge to London from the Vadamaradchi sector of the Jaffna peninsula. She described the current situation and plight of women in the area.
"The ordinary women are living in fear. Any thing could happen to you at any time. You can't go anywhere out of your village without going through a number of Sri Lanka Army check points. We only go out if we are accompanied by older persons like our parents. We are frightened of the Army. There are lots of girls like Krishanthi [Kumaraswamy] who have been raped and murdered by the Sri Lankan armed forces. Unlike Krishanthi's case ours wouldn't come to lime light because our parents are poor working class people."
When speaking at a recent event organised by the United Nations to mark international women's day, the US first lady, Hillary Clinton, attacked the Taliban for mistreating women.
"There probably is no more egregious and systematic trampling of fundamental rights of women today than what is happening in Afghanistan under the iron rule of the Taliban,'' she said, referring to the Islamist fundamentalist movement that controls most of the country.
Ms.Clinton said women once comprised almost half of Afghanistan's doctors and teachers but now were barred from both professions while the doors of girls' schools "are slammed shut".
"We have heard all of us the stories of women being flogged with metal cables because a bit of ankle would be showing. We have heard of women being taken to hospital after hospital and finally dying ... because there were no women doctors and no male doctor could be permitted to treat the women," she said.
She also spoke about the inhuman treatments of women in several other countries.
However she has failed to make any reference about the plight of women prisoners in US jails. The human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, in its recent report said that women prisoners in the US jails are undergoing serious sexual abuse, including rape and being sold as sex slaves to male inmates.
The equality between men and women cannot be established through mere laws or economic or educational developments. It can only be achieved by mutual understanding between them and with by a change of mindset in accepting basic humanitarian norms for all. Unfortunately even in last year of the twentieth century, we can't say that we have progressed to this stage.