Gender, Identity and Conflict: Militant Women and Feminist Assertion in In the Shadow of a Sword: The Memoir of a Woman Leader in the LTTE by Thamizhini

Abstract

This article attempts to study the condition of militant women in conflict zones by exploring how Sri Lankan militant women who actively engaged themselves in the Sri Lankan civil war for more than two decades, were reifying their radical feminist self, amidst the adversities of war and its strenuous terrain. Further, the article attempts to study the life narrative In the Shadow of a Sword: The Memoir of a Woman Leader in the LTTE by Thamizhini, translated by Nedra Rodrigo, which depicts a realistic way of dealing with the struggles of war, with Thamizhini focusing primarily on the feminist aspects of the movement, including how female cadres evolved into formidable women over the course of the struggle, and how it all fell apart at the end of the war. It also tries to look into the militant identity that the Sri Lankan Tamil women built during the course of the war and the identity crisis that they have gone through in the aftermath of the war. It examines the positionality of female soldiers in conflict, peace negotiations, and national politics, by foregrounding how female combatants in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) transition from a female to a feminist phase during the conflict, and how this transition inverses in the aftermath. Furthermore, the article intends to investigate Thamizhinis past experiences and memories and how she came to terms with her past. This article aims to analyse the development of female soldiers identities inside the LTTE, from their initial identification as “female” with feminine traits to their acceptance of a more “feminist” stance within the movement and throughout the course of the war by drawing on Toril Mois (1989) conceptions of female, feminine, and feminist identities. This framework further sheds light on the complex processes of constructing identities and agency among these women, extending the relevance of Mois idea beyond the confines of womens literature and comprehending how the genre of life narrative represents and negotiates varied aspects of subdued gender identities.

Keywords

• female competence
• identity crisis
• militant woman
• sri lankan civil war