Our website is in the process of being completed and soon you will hear more of what we plan to do. Our intention is to motivate and strengthen women in the political sphere, encouraging them to build their self- confidence and create a society free of injustices, oppression, marginalization and slavery against women.
The Chairman of the newly formed Commission Ms. Priyani Wijesekera together with her versatile members aims at achieving this objective. This is a very responsible Body which is taking serious note of all the current atrocities purported against women. Under the leadership of the Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe our farseeing leader, we are able to move forward as he continues to give us his advise and guidance and strengthening women both politically and socially. As we are all aware of this is a burning issue in our country which has not been seriously addressed previously.
What has been done in the past is a pure surface cleaning up. We need to dig deeper and eradicate this problem from our society permanently. It is necessary to bring this up at all levels, especially in schools and other institutions. Women need to be given their due place in society with all respect. For this we need the cooperation not only of our women but of our men too who empathize with us women and strengthen our arm in this worthwhile cause. It is both sad and pathetic that our Hon. Minister of Women’s Affairs felt justified in making a discriminatory statement on the role of women. He was of the view that women cannot be at the helm of any Ministry.
I beg to defer here, as we need to refresh his memory by reminding him that we produced the first woman Prime Minister, the late Hon. Sirimavo Dias Bandaranaike who ruled the whole country not just a single ministry, so did her erstwhile daughter the Hon. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranatunga. Then in an era gone by we had Mrs. Vivian Goonewardena who gave political leadership, and was a good example for many women to follow her footsteps in the political field. the most versatile, daring, devoted national minded woman, Mrs Wimala Kanangara who fearlessly came out at a time when our country was male dominated, to serve the whole community irrespective of race, religion or political hue.
She sacrificed all her wealth and time for this cause and spent her latter days as a poverty stricken woman with no home. Other important personalities that come to mind are Mrs. Renuka Herath who gave the health ministry a turn around in the right direction when it was ailing itself, Mrs. Amara Piyaseeli who in spite of her husband being killed by the JVP continued to work for a just cause and cared and nurtured her children giving them the right human values, Mrs. Priyani Wijesekera our present Chairperson who was the Parliamentary Secretary herself was able to both guide and steer many parliamentarians giving them leadership in parliament. We do have many such women in the past and the present who have led the way for us women, and to whom we are grateful and owe much. We also have women who hold the topmost positions in practically every field not only in our own land but internationally too.
It is not fair to undermine the woman. Reference must be made to the Deputy Speaker too who made a derogatory statement about women who came to the electorate with make-up etc. He has failed to see the inner strength of the woman who is courageous enough to come forward and speak up fearlessly irrespective of the place, time or dangers around.
If these are attempts made to undermine the role of the woman in politics and society it is a very poor show as without women nothing can be achieved. They are the backbone of our country from labourers, migrant workers to top executives, to politics. Our garment as well as tea industry is almost totally dependent on the women. Bearing all this in mind we should give due recognition where it is due and not squash the importance of the role of the woman in our own land and look to eradicating such forms of violence which is rampant against all women.
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