ThinkHer

 I believe that a nation that has to protect its women rather than empower them has a problem. One has to understand that power hides itself in the language of protection and purity. This is where the statement, "Fundamentalism uses women's bodies as a battlefield in its struggle to appropriate institutional power", by Malathi De Alwis, makes sense. Malathi de Alwis ©Colombo Telegraph Malathi de Alwis is a pioneering Sri Lankan anthropologist, feminist scholar, peace activist and a teacher. Born on 6 October 1963 in Sri Lanka, she earned her PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago. She spent her career unpacking the uneasy alliance between gender and nationalism. During the turbulent decades of civil war in Sri Lanka, she stood out as a voice that asked difficult questions. Her work has been indispensable to understanding Sinhala Buddhist nationalism and its construction of the good woman. Her PhD work, titled- Maternalist Politics in Sri Lanka: ...

In the end, whether by questioning inherited norms, affirming long-held values, or embracing their children’s evolving beliefs, raising daughters prompted many parents to revisit their understandings of gender. To deepen our understanding, we asked parents a more personal question: What is something valuable your daughter(s) has/have taught you that you hadn’t considered before? The answers to this question revealed something quite profound: parenting is both a mirror and a threshold, a place where old certainties are gently undone. Raising a child in today’s world becomes an intimate intergenerational dialogue, one that is especially catalyzed by daughters who are often more vocal and determined in challenging the world as it is. In this space, both voices shape the conversation, with parents discovering that, at times, they absorb as much as they hope to impart. What stood out most was the sheer breadth of what daughters are teaching their parents today. From values to language, ...