Resisting 'Karumaya' (the fate of women): Engaging men and boys on gender equality in Sri Lanka

Author: ESubden

Published by: Centre for Health and Social Justice, Men Engage Alliance

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Protecting the family's 'good name' is often a burden for women and ends up concealing excesses of patriarchal power like domestic violence. Culturally, women are trained to a fatalistic attitude of resignation towards such suffering: this construction of femininity attributes such suffering to a woman's fate or 'karumaya''. This case study looks at how engaging men and boys on gender equality can help change the 'fate of women'.