Sri Lanka's Silent Crisis of Gender-Based Violence

Late one evening in a crowded Colombo police station, a young woman sits beside her parents, flanked by two constables They look intimidated, exhausted, and unsure of what comes next.

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“What was she wearing?”

“Why was she out so late?”

“Was she seeing anyone else?”

Her parents plead for help while she sits quietly, pale and gaunt, still in shock from what she has just endured.

This is a reality faced by thousands of Sri Lankan women. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) remains widespread, sustained by archaic gender norms and stereotypes leading to rigid moral codes and an overtly conservative social culture.

SGBV is one of Sri Lanka’s most pervasive human rights concerns. Studies suggest that in Sri Lanka, one in five women experiences physical or sexual violence during her lifetime, most often by someone she knows. Yet official statistics capture only a fraction of the problem.

In a grim sense, one could say that SGBV in Sri Lanka is ‘progressive and utterly indiscriminate’ – age, race, ethnicity, and social status offer no protection. It is an ordeal that nearly every woman encounters in some form during her lifetime. In our society, SGBV is a reality so common, so embedded, that its horror is often masked by its familiarity.