Paper short abstract:

An evidence-based audio-visual portrayal of how women in all-diversities, from multi-ethnic, multi-cultural backgrounds and various geographical areas in Sri Lanka occupied patriarchal protest spaces searching for a gender just and feminist peace process in post-war Sri Lanka.

Paper long abstract:

Twelve years since the end of the thirty-year civil war between the Sri Lankan state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Sri Lankans experienced their worst economic crisis as a result of a long term corrupted and violent political culture led by men. As citizens were eking out a living during the crisis, women mobilised themselves as one of the first groups to occupy public spaces in the non-violent resistance movement - #GoHomeGota - to oust the corrupted political dictatorship. However, mainstream media did not do justice for visualising women’s representation in the resistance movement including their vulnerabilities. As a feminist ethnographic response, #WeVoice, a facebook group was created by the researcher as a safe social media space for collective visualisation of vulnerabilities of women in all-diversities. This paper is an evidence-based audio-visual portrayal of how women in all-diversities, from multi-ethnic, multi-cultural backgrounds, and various geographical areas in Sri Lanka, not only occupied patriarchal non-violent protest spaces - traditionally led and participated in by men – but also collectively searched for gender justice despite their vulnerabilities emanating from the economic crisis and participation in the non-violent resistance movement.