The construction of the Sri Lankan Northern Tamil Woman: The Shaping of Identities Across Three Decades

This article explores the overarching themes emerging from the identities of Northern Tamil women in Sri Lanka over the last three decades. The war has impacted their lives in many ways and has shaped their identities over time. The paper aims to identify some of the significant markers of their identities, the historical periods in which these narratives were formed, and how these contributed to the construction of knowledge through scholarly articles, fiction and reports. The paper is divided into sections based on these three genres, preceded by a theoretical analysis and a brief historical timeline of the war. It becomes evident that during various periods of the war, different identities of these women were highlighted while simultaneously, some other facets of their identities were rarely or never written about or discussed by authors of fiction and reports These identities and narratives also shaped the efforts initiated by organizations that chose to intervene in these communities post-war.