Author: Sarah Soysa

A meme of a woman with her finger pointing outward speaking angrily. Text written reads, "Meaningful youth participation means involving young people in decision making process, not just making them as decoration!"

Nothing for us without us: Young People and Development

·September 1, 2015
·Sarah Soysa

There are many mechanism, agendas and processes such as the post-2015 mechanism in development to ensure gender equality and ‘to leave no one behind.’ These are meant to work together with national strategies, global development discourse, Civil society, UN bodies, grassroots organisations, the corporate sector, etc. Human rights are not a gift and certainly not…

A woman from Sri Lanka holding up a placard which has information on why abortion should be legal

Between the Nation State and a Hard Place

·May 15, 2015
·Sarah Soysa

Cultural norms and religion no doubt affect the way we perceive the world. They shape one’s behaviour, habits and practices, and values and ethics. They also dictate how we perceive women in relation to the traditional family. In most countries, including those in South Asia like Sri Lanka, nationalism shapes the discourse on family, gender…

A woman from Sri Lanka holding up a placard which has information on why abortion should be legal

Campaign for Safe Abortion in Sri Lanka

·April 1, 2014
·Sarah Soysa

In Sri Lanka, abortion is only permitted in cases where pregnancy or childbirth is life-threatening for the woman. Nevertheless the number of reported daily abortions taking place in Sri Lanka is more than 750.

In Plainspeak publishes two issues with a theme every month.
A cross-cutting theme across all forthcoming issues in 2022 is how we can expand safe, inclusive self-affirming spaces.

THIS ISSUE:

January 2022 – SISA Spaces and Sexuality
Imagine a space where we are free to be authentically ourselves, to love who and how we want, to feel accepted, connected, and supported, and to assert ourselves against heteropatriarchal expectations around gender and sexuality. In a world riven with violences and marginalisations, safe, inclusive, and self-affirming (SISA) spaces in the context of gender and sexuality bring to life the shared feminist vision of sexual and reproductive health and rights, and wellbeing. Celebrating plurality, SISA spaces make room for multiple identities, lived experiences, and perspectives. SISA spaces encourage us to look within, to engage with and learn from one another, to hold space, and to evolve. In the January anthology issue of In Plainspeak, we bring you a collection of older articles around SISA spaces and sexuality, and attempt to discover newer ways of forging and expanding such spaces.

February – Sexuality and Coupledom
Wading through the dating pool, we are expected to pair off – one man, one woman, get married, and raise children. Romantic relationships within a hetero-patriarchal set-up are tangled in ideas of ‘soulmates’ and ‘forever’. Instead of The One, what if we choose to seek The Two, or even The Three with whom we can forge fulfilling emotional, sexual, and material connections? Or, being asexual, maybe no one at all for sex, but still luxuriate in intimacy? In exploring relationships outside the bounds of socio-political and cultural legitimacy by experimenting with and expressing sexuality in ways we find meaningful is an assertion of agency, bodily autonomy, and selfhood against patriarchal norms around relationships and family. The February issue of In Plainspeak attempts to examine coupledom in our social context, and unearth its possibilities.

For future issue themes, please click here.

Would you like to contribute? Send an email to blogeditor@tarshi.net with your idea. Do take a look at our submission guidelines!

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