muslim women in the tenement gardens of colombo: a story of marginalization, legitimized by a...

8/11/2019 Muslim Women in the Tenement Gardens of Colombo: A Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by a Culture of Opp

1/36


2/36

Social Scientists Association

Pamphlet No. 02

Muslim Women in the Tenement

Gardens of Colombo

A Story of Marginalization Legitimized by a

Culture of Oppression

Minna Thaheer


3/36

Social Scientists Association 2014

ISBN 978-955-0762-25-5

Published bySocial Scientists Association12, Sulaiman Terrace,Colombo 5, Sri Lanka.Tel: +94-11-2501339 / 2504623www.ssalanka.org

Printed byWorld Vision Graphics077 2928907


4/36

AcknowledgementsAcknowledgementsAcknowledgementsAcknowledgementsAcknowledgements

I wish to thank all individuals who helped me with thispublication. First and foremost, I wish to thank Dr KumariJayawardena and Prof Jayadeva Uyangoda for all theencouragement and guidance. My sincere thanks are also

extended to Mr. Pradeep Peiris, Council Member, Ms RasikaChandrasekara, Ms Buddhima Padmasiri, the SSA team for allthe generous support and Ms. Judy W. Pasqualge for her valuableeditorial services. I am also grateful to all the interviewees in thestudy for spending time with me.

Finally, I owe a great deal of gratitude to my father, mysister and my son, Adheeb for their love that sustains me.

Minna Thaheer


5/36


6/36

1

Muslim WMuslim WMuslim WMuslim WMuslim Women in the Tomen in the Tomen in the Tomen in the Tomen in the Tenement Garenement Garenement Garenement Garenement Gardens ofdens ofdens ofdens ofdens ofColombo:Colombo:Colombo:Colombo:Colombo:

A Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by aA Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by aA Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by aA Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by aA Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by aCulture of OppressionCulture of OppressionCulture of OppressionCulture of OppressionCulture of Oppression

The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and

without becoming disillusioned.1Antonio Gramsci

Soon after the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) elections in

October 2011, historian and activist Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri2gave

an interesting explanation to the Lankadeepanewspaper on why

the poor and working-class voters of Colombo had made theUnited National Party (UNP) victory possible. They are not the

owners of the mansion that is the UNP. They are only poor tenantstaking refuge in the UNP house (Dewasiri 2011). While

translating his interview into English, which was later published

in the Daily Mirror, my mind and focus were drawn sharply to

the black-veiled3Muslim women voters who flocked to the polling

booths in Colombo-North, Slave Island and other traditional

Muslim concentrations in the city.The cacophony of giggles and eager banter had a mixture

of fear and determination. It was an expression of a collective cry:

We need our humble homes. These are small cramped spaces

where they live and have lived for generations. These dwellings

are classified by social service workers as underserved areas.

Urban planners call them unauthorized structures. Real estate

developers call them prime property in neglect and in squalor ablot on the cityscape. As Dewasiri with great sensitivity (or the


7/36

2

absence of it) said, The poor make a living out of squalor. In

explanation he wrote:

The government knows that Colombo cannot organise itself as aseparate opposition to it. On the other hand, the promise ofmaking Colombo an authority is very attractive. The majority ofpeople who use Colombo comprise the floating population thatcomes in the morning and goes out of Colombo in the evening.For these people, a Colombo city administered by the Ministryof Defence, clean and attractive, is something to be desired. It isnot attractive to the poor people living within Colombo. For them,

Colombo is a place where they make a living. Removing garbageis attractive to the ordinary person. It is not attractive to peoplewho make a living out of garbage. I am not suggesting that peopleshould be allowed to live in the midst of garbage. I am only givingvoice to the realities that exist. The political power of the countryrests not in the hands of the people who live in Colombo but onthose who come to Colombo in the morning and leave Colomboin the evening. The formation of an authority4 that supersedesthe authority of the Colombo Municipal Council will be attractive

to the floating population that comes in and goes out of Colombo.Therefore, the opinion of those who live in Colombo does not

matter to the Government. (Dewasiri 2011)

The last local government elections in 2011 saw the

opposition UNP reverse a nationwide electoral trend by surgingahead in the Colombo Municipal Council, polling 101,920 votes

and winning 24 seats. The ruling UPFA received 77,089 votes and

16 seats, while the other 13 seats in the 53-member council were

divided between the Tamil nationalist Democratic Peoples Front

(6 seats), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (2), Democratic Unity

Alliance (2), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (1) and Independents(2).5These figures indicate what Dewasiri described thus:

There is a section of the populace that the UPFA cannot bring

under its hold or rather they resist coming under the UPFA. Theymay occasionally sway towards them under distant


8/36

3

circumstances but they never become an organic part of the UPFAconstituency. The constituency that refuses its allegiance to theUPFA consists of the North and the people in metropolitanColombo. It doesnt necessarily mean that there are no other suchgroupings. In fact, there are other groups such as the Muslimcommunity and the plantation Tamil community who do not forma part of the UPFA constituency. However, the leadership of thesepolitical groups may in return for political patronage help theUPFA in their quest for power. But, that does not happen byrewarding the individual voters of these constituencies. (Dewasiri

2011)

The Muslim community had clearly voted with the UNP.The party, as an added incentive, had a Muslim mayoral candidate.

The performance of the Tamil-centric Democratic Peoples Front

reflects its success in Tamil identity politics. However, the UNPs

success can only be attributed to the central campaign issue that

dominated the elections to the Municipal Council of Colombo.

The central issue in the elections was the governments

plan to evict more than 70,000 families from the slums and shantiesin Colombo. The government hopes to improve the cityscape in

pursuit of its declared policy of transforming the city into a major

commercial hub in South Asia (Perera 2012).

The Muslim community of Colombo has been an integral

part of the evolution of the city to the present-day metropolis.The 1871 census indicates that the ethnic composition of the

Colombo Municipality was Sinhalese, 42,160; Tamils, 19,170;Moors, 22,386; and Malays, 2,486 (Census of the Island of Ceylon

1871:102).

The Colombo Municipal Council was established in 1866

under the Colombo Municipal Council Ordinance of 1865. Thephysical extent of the city was 24.5 square km

in 1871. The

amalgamation of adjoining areas from time to time increased the

physical size of the city. The present city area is 37.3 square km

(Hulugalle 1965:15-18).


9/36

4

What is self-evident but not recognized by planners and

politicians alike is that the Muslims living in present-day Colombo

have far deeper historical roots to the metropolis than both itsSinhalese and Tamil residents. While Colombo grew in size over

one century, the Muslim women (who this report is about) who

flocked to the polling booths in the 2011 CMC elections were

largely the descendants of those who were classified as Moors

and Malays by the Census of 1871 (Census of the Island 1871:101-

102).

The Muslims of Colombo are by no stretch of imagination

a part of the rural population that migrated to Colombo. Theywere not drawn by the economic opportunities of the growing

city. In fact, they were an integral part of the process of migration.

They were already in Colombo when the famed Ceylon Moor

builder Wapichchi Marikkar built the Colombo Museum in 1877.

Muslim small traders, artisans and preachers were already in

Colombo when the Ceylon Moor ladies presented an Arabian

Night6

reception to the wife of British Governor Sir HenryManning in 1921 in the fabulous grounds of the mansion-Villa

Stamboul on Galle Road, Kollupitiya, belonging to Sir Mohamed

Macan Marker, a member of the Legislative Council in 1924.

On the contrary, the present-day, veil-covered,

marginalized, Muslim women-slum dwellers displaying a

hitherto unknown zeal in municipal politics were mothers, wives,

sisters and daughters of street hawkers, petty traders, peddlers

and artisans, who are trapped in the time warp of the history ofColombo city. Krishan Deheragoda notes that: It is unfortunate

that most of the Colombo politicians are still exploiting the social

vulnerability of Colombos poor who live in underserved

settlements.7He also makes a curious remark about politicians

who are enjoying the power at the cost of the future of the poorest

of the poor in Colombo (Deheragoda 2011).

In our attempt to understand the claim of Dewasiri thatthe poor make economics out of the squalor in slums and shanties,


10/36

5

one needs to ask, not why, but how? Attempting to

understand the concerns of Deheragoda one needs to ask, who?

Who are the poorest of the poor in Colombo?A reasoned explanation of how the squalor of their

dwellings contributes to their living and the nature of the existence

of the poorest of the poor constitutes the poignantly miserable

story of a group of marginalized Muslim women. Their neglect is

so severe that they are not in any classification by either the state

or civil society. Their existence in the voter registers is real, as

already seen. Within the social fabric of the Muslim society of the

city, they have a shadowy existence. They are concealed by thestubborn orthodoxy of Muslim society. That can be explained.

There is another aspect to their shadowy existence that defies

explanation. They live shrouded by both social and political norms

of the modern Muslim community, whose community identity is

engineered by a male-dominated Muslim mercantile class. That

identity thrives on a fallacious claim of their universal affluence

as a community, that has made business the only business oftheir leaders in politics and civil society.

The TThe TThe TThe TThe Tenement Garenement Garenement Garenement Garenement Garden Wden Wden Wden Wden Womenomenomenomenomen

The Muslim women whose lives are described in this paper are

yet another community of women who are oppressed not by

deliberate design but by ground realities not recognized by city

planners. They are women whose narrative span more than a

century from 1871 to 2011. Many are city-dwelling manualworkers, who reside in the tenement gardens called watte in

Sinhala or thottamin Tamil. The ramshackle slums or houses on

less than one or two perches of land, sometimes built up on more

than one floor, spread out to reach all the space they can physically

occupy. Such Muslim women constitute a sizeable part of the

urban labyrinth of slums and shanties in most parts of Colombo.

They live in large concentrations in Colombo-Central andColombo-North.


11/36

6

These are women trapped in a community that has been

identified with the affluence of the city of Colombo. This notion

of Muslim affluence originates from the time of British rule (Ali1987:311). Islam, which dictates charity by the rich as compulsory,

was able to conceal their existence until the advent of the flat world

of the global economy. Urban development planners disguised

them as underserved. Politics of patronage made them a vote bank

that needs to be preserved.

An attempt is made in this paper to understand and

explain the world they live in. Such an insight can only facilitate

the task of planners who wish to make Colombo the commercialand financial hub of South Asia.

This group of women has not been captured in the

discourse of democracy, representation, equal rights, individual

rights and cultural rights. They are wives, daughters and sisters

and by societal norms dependant. Yet on the contrary, they are

day-maids, washer-women, canteen workers, self-employed

women, Quran-teaching lebbemmas, women who bathe thecorpse at Muslim womens funerals (maiyaththu kalavura

manusi), the osthamami (women who carry out female

circumcision), savoury/sweet-meats makers or kadayappam

sellers, janitors, street sweepers, pavement hawkers, workers in

garment factories, handicraft makers, chaperons of school kids,

drug peddlers, beggars, mistresses or concubines of men in the

neighbourhood, housemaids and service providers. Some are

Middle-East-returnees whose savings have either been fritteredor forcibly taken away by male relatives, husbands or elders who

know better.

The only democratic ideal they have known was to unravel

the complexities of life under the fragile roof that gave them

shelter. That shelter was now under threat with either total

deprivation or relocation to some other inhospitable environment.

The threat was real. They were suddenly told that their vote was


12/36

7

also real. It meant something real for the first time when they

went to vote in the CMC elections in October 2011. They were

advised that the vote would decide if they were to have a roofover themselves or not.

Franchise and womens suffrage found its true meaning

in these CMC elections. Democracy and popular sovereignty

showed their real strength from below when they gave a mandate

to the opposition (UNP), which would otherwise have not won,8

according to many, given the unassailable UPFA victories. The

strength of marginalized women, their voice of defiance and their

demands arising out of years of substandard living were allrevealed in one message.

Most of the low-income, wage-earning families have a high

number of women-headed households. The closure of garment

factories in 2009, which had less to do with the EU withdrawal of

GSP concessions than the consolidation of the industry in the

hands of a monopoly cartel of manufacturers, affected the

livelihood of many. The eviction of hawkers who peddled theirmerchandise on pavements of market hubs in Pettah and Fort

deprived their men of a source of earnings. This reduced their

living standards (two cups of thethanni(tea) reduced to one). At

the top or at the end of every street where they lived, these women

and their men folk sold houseware items. The post-war police

whose duties now focussed on clean, orderly streets did not want

them cluttering the sidewalks. Obviously, the tidy city had an

impact on the cooking pot.Children could not be fed. A sizeable number of these

women are widowed, divorced or abandoned. They are often

saddled with children to whom they are devoted. The fact that

most of them had to fend for themselves reflects their socio-

economic marginalization. There is a high incidence of divorce

among these low-income families. Husbands were usually

incapable of providing anything but meagre earnings.


13/36

8

Eviction:Eviction:Eviction:Eviction:Eviction: AnAnAnAnAn Act of TAct of TAct of TAct of TAct of Terrerrerrerrerrorismorismorismorismorism

Mews Street in Slave Island is an example of how 20 houses

were razed to the ground with about 5 days notice to theresidents. They were made homeless and addressless within

hours. There were many residents in small houses with about 3

perches each, with 3 concrete slabs making 3 upper storeys. These

20 or more families had little time to evacuate. A politician whom

they approached had promised to help. He never did. The

bulldozers arrived on the fifth day when they were well settled

at home. The army was deployed to ensure that nobody was

run over by the bulldozers.Provincial Councilor Arshad Nizamdeen from Slave

Island, of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress said:

These families living in these areas for over 70 years had originaldeeds that gave them legal title to their land. Of the 20 houses, inMews Street, 16 had been given to them by former President R.Premadasa while 4 houses were personally owned. They all had

had original title deeds. They were let down by the MPs whomthey have been traditionally supporting. We facilitated the legalprocess to some extent. Their complaints are now being heard incourts, where they have sought legal remedy after the demolition.They have succeeded in obtaining some relief in the form of aninterim court order where an allowance is paid until they areresettled. Minister Rauff Hakeem spoke to the UDA (UrbanDevelopment Authority) and sought explanation. These familieshave some hope. Of the Glennie Street residents who were evicted,

about 74 families got houses but the way they got evicted wasinhuman. Many more have not been compensated.9

It may be argued that their lives in concrete pigeonholes

needed to be changed. However, they were content to live

huddled together for three generations, which makes any

promised improvement in habitat a dubious proposition. Besides,

poverty is taking a toll on Muslim women. They are highly

disillusioned and abandoned.


14/36


15/36

10

Apart from these, many other sections of Colombos low-income

population face eviction in Aluthkade (Colombo 12), Maligawatte

(Colombo 10), Kuppiyawatte (Colombo 9), Maradana (Colombo10), Mattakkuliya (Colombo 14), Modera (Colombo 15), Kotahena

(Colombo 13), Dematagoda (Colombo 9), Wellawatte (Colombo

6) and Kollupitiya (Colombo 3).

One noticeable trend was that Muslim women, unlike in

the past, remained unmarried until their mid-30s. This was due

to a lack of resources/dowries. Many Muslim men increasingly

seek brides with wealth (especially a house in Colombo as part

of a dowry package). Poor parents, unable to provide dowry or

an endowment to their daughters, are resigned to see them reach

their mid-30s without marrying. This is a social phenomenon

among city Muslims in sharp contrast to rural Muslims.

Most women in their 30s and 40s living in Slave Island

have sought employment as maids in West Asian countries. They

often leave their children with their mothers (and are also often

abandoned by their men). One of the women, Marliya (56), whowas evicted and is now living in a suburban slum in Peliyagoda

with two young grandchildren, relates how her daughter who

was recovering from a mastectomy had to leave her children

behind to seek employment as a maid in Lebanon. Her husband

had abandoned her.13

T.F. Mazeena (50) is another woman who made her living

as a janitor in a private hospital after the death of her husband.

She had three daughters to support. She lived with her mother

and brother in Glennie Street and was forced out of the

ramshackle house where she lived for many years. She now lives

in Kolonnawa in a rented house and continues to work at the

hospital as a janitor. She makes sense out of squalor. Squalor

was in close proximity to the hospital where she earned a living

as a janitor. Now, there is a considerable distance between the

poorest of the poor living in a rented house and her place ofwork. She said,


16/36

11

My husband was a drunkard and a wastrel. He left us with nothingwhen he died. It is a very difficult life to lead with grown-updaughters. One of them is schooling and the other two are at home.They sew buttons and collars at home for an agent who brings us

some business.14

Of those who lost their houses in Mews Street, Slave

Island, are two widowed sisters (out of 12 siblings) and their

children who depend on the income of one of them. They had a

title deed. After their eviction they live in two rented houses.

One of them, N. Naleefa (49), has become a full-time domestichelper in homes during the day. She works in at least three houses

during the week, leaving her 15-year-old daughter at home. I

am seeking help from some people to get the school books for

my daughter. Here is the list of school books. I was asked to

come to a certain house by a lady who has volunteered to help

me get the books,15she said. Her sister Ummu Zekiya (42) is aworker in a school canteen. She has three children aged 16, 12

and 10. Both sisters, who lived for many years in their deceasedmothers home in Mews Street in Slave Island, had an original

deed to the house and hope that they too will get a house as

compensation for the one that was demolished. However, which

one, out of the 12 children (of the original owner of the house,their mother) was going to be entitled to the compensation of

the new house is a question that will confront them. All siblings

will vie for the house offered as compensation for the lost house,

said their relative.16

Disenfranchisement of the WDisenfranchisement of the WDisenfranchisement of the WDisenfranchisement of the WDisenfranchisement of the WeakeakeakeakeakAfter the defeat of the LTTE and the end of the civil war, Colombo

is rapidly developing into a grand business hub that attracts

investment in mega projects, but, who will continue to remain

in this grand city is the question.

Sithy Fathima (63), the owner of house number 49, saidthey were perennial UNP voters. They had voted at every


17/36

12

election. They had 11 votes in the family. This time they could

not vote at the Colombo Municipal Council election as they were

evicted.

Our names have been taken off the electoral lists, ever since theincident [eviction of Mews Street residents] on 8 May 2010. Ourgrandchildren too have lost their claim over this place and as aresult cannot seek admission to a school here. We lost our ownhomes and voting rights and now our grandchildren too will lose

the opportunity for a good education.17

The urban poor have a share in the contribution to the industrial

and service sectors in both urban and suburban areas of greater

Colombo. There is a nexus between the growth of the city and

land expropriation from the poor. Slave Island evictions are living

testimony to the disenfranchisement of marginalized poor women

especially Muslim women. They are the voiceless witnesses who

are an impediment to those in power. To the opposition, they are

a people to be pickled and preserved in poverty for vote bankpolitics.


18/36

13

Fear of DevelopmentFear of DevelopmentFear of DevelopmentFear of DevelopmentFear of Development

Most women who were interviewed for this pamphlet had not

voted before due to indifference, but did vote at the last CMCelections. In the Colombo Municipality area there are five

electorates: Colombo Central, Colombo North, Colombo East,

Colombo West, Colombo South, and Borella. Muslims who

account for a heavy percentage of the voters have lived in

Colombo, all their lives. Colombo Central, Colombo North and

Borella are areas dominated by middle to low-income Muslim

families. Muslims continue to be a dominant community in

numbers as shown quoted earlier. In 1994, for the first time, theUNP lost all five electorates at the presidential election.

The gardens these Muslims live in have problems in

themselves. During the UNP regime they had business

opportunities and self-employment opportunities as pavement

hawkers. They were either given housing or their occupancy was

regularized, which allowed them access to such utilities as water

and electricity. Branded as UNP, the SLFP-led governments haveshown little empathy with these low-income families.


19/36

14

The General Report of the Census of Population of 1971

explains the increase of Sri Lankan Muslims 100 years after the

first census of 1871 thus:

At the census of 1881, there were 184.5 thousand Moors in theisland. Their number increased to 855.7 thousand in 1971. Sincethe census of 1911 Moors have been enumerated separately asSri Lanka Moors and Indian Moors and at the Census of 1911,32.7 thousand or 12.3% of the Moors were of Indian origin. Thepercentage of Indian Moors to the total Moor population hasgradually declined to 3.2 %. At the Census of 1971, nearly 97% of

the Moors in Sri Lanka were enumerated as Sri Lanka Moors. In 1911, there were 233.9 thousand Sri Lanka Moors in the island.Their number has increased to 828.3 thousand in 1971. Unlikethe Tamils, the Moors have increased in their absolute numbersas well as in their proportions to the total population. The sharpincrease in absolute numbers as well as in the proportions of theSri Lankan Moors and the corresponding decline in the case ofthe Indian suggest that Indian Moors may have been misreportedas Sri Lanka Moors at the Censuses of 1963 and 1961. (Census ofPopulation of 1971:86-87)

Historical evidence establishes that Colombo was a city

with a traditional Muslim-populated hub at its centre. It is also

obvious that the UNP has cultivated them as a voter base. The

marginalized Muslim women are the victims of UNP exploitation

and government party discrimination. The UNP has been able to

retain its traditional voter base in the city due to its demography.Colombo has a Tamil-speaking majority, namely Tamils and Tamil-

speaking Muslims. The majority of the Sinhalese in the city belong

to the floating population who are in the city by day and leave

after work. UNP Western Province Councilor Mujibur

Rahman said,

The ruling UPFA government tried hard to win elections in

Colombo. They deployed all state resources for that purpose. Thepresident himself campaigned in Colombo-Central and Colombo-


20/36

15

North. The Defence Secretary identified with the city redevelopmenttried to appease the residents in areas earmarked forredevelopment. But they failed. This is a Tamil-speakingmunicipality. One of the main reasons for the UPFA defeat is thatthe Mahinda Rajapaksa government has resorted to many actionsthat have hurt the sentiments of the Tamil-speaking people (bothTamil and Muslim) out of disregard for this polity. This hasaffected the Muslims badly. The decision to evict people fordevelopment work mainly affected Tamil- and Muslim-populatedareas as they were targeted in a major way for development. Thisin turn has had a profound effect on these communities. This is

the main reason for the government to lose the elections. Theseordinary low-income groups of minorities realized that votingfor the government would mean that they would lose theirlivelihoods and homes.18

Women feel the pinch more, for they are the most fragile,

socially and oppressed in many ways. The low-income city-

dwelling Muslim women find the city, where their roots are,

the only place to make a living. They need to rely on their friendsand relations of their extended families to give them a sense ofsecurity and belonging. No town planner can offer it in the form

of a blueprint.

It was alleged that under the Colombo city development

plan the Urban Development Authority was planning to settle

these people in Gampaha, Avisawella and Kalutara. This fear of

relocation was the principal reason that turned voters away. The

use of the army to do the survey made people uneasy becausethe UDA was also an arm of the Ministry of Defence.

In Aluthkade or Hulftsdorp (Colombo 12), almost all

areas have been earmarked for demolition, such as Princess Gate,

Pallithottam, Vaalaithollatam, Harbourthottam, Siranguthottam,

Sekkuthottam etc. (Thottamliterally refers to a garden in Tamil).A woman living in a garden in Hulftsdorp, Fairoze Mohideen

(27), is one of three women from a house down Pallithottam

(Mosque Garden) who voted at the municipal elections this time.


21/36

16

She said,

We were never interested in voting before. This time we weredetermined to vote to make sure that the governments developmentplans would not oust us from our homes. Some officials came toevery house down our lane about seven months ago. They stuck ayellow sticker on our door. They inquired from us, what our sourceof income is, how much we earn and how much is spent for amonth? They asked us if we were willing to leave this house if wewere given another outside Colombo. We flatly refused. They toldus they were not there to break our houses but to count the number

of people only.19

Another reason for their refusal to leave is that their

small, two-perch houses have as many as three to four storeysand have expanded over the years. Here, two or three sisters

occupy a floor each with their husbands and young children.These one-roomed floors are often the wedding gifts fromparents. Muslim men come to the womens home after marriage

a practice in the Colombo Muslim community. Should they beasked to leave, invariably a conflict arises as to who should getthe alternative house to be given per family (by the government)that holds a valid deed.

Fairozes cousin Latheefa (43), who lives in one of the

houses along the railway line in Dematagoda, was with her

during the interview. She also shares this doubt. Laila, who lives

in a crowded area along the Dematagoda Road, said:

I too have an orange label on my door. Some officials had visitedour house. Since we were not at home, they got my son to posewith a board bearing our house number for a photograph. Thereare rumours that we may get houses in Kolonnawa. I fear theywant us to leave Colombo and settle down in remote areas outsideColombo. I voted this time after a long time. I thought I would beasked to leave my house and settle outside Colombo. I fear leavingmainly owing to my childrens schooling. Apparently, there areplans to resettle us outside Colombo. My husband is an employeein the harbour. How can we lead normal lives if we get ousted?20


22/36

17

Loss of LivelihoodLoss of LivelihoodLoss of LivelihoodLoss of LivelihoodLoss of Livelihood

The women who were affected had wayside stalls selling

aluminum pots and pans, or savouries and sweet-meats, in theirlanes or on the main roads. Their husbands or sons, who are three-

wheeler drivers, payment hawkers or day-wage earners (labour

workers in the Pettah and Fort areas), have also been hit by the

new government regulations. With the eviction of pavement

hawkers from Main Street, 1stCross to 5thCross Streets, KeyserStreet, etc., in Pettah, Colombo 11, their lives have become more

unstable. These payment hawkers sold garments, toys and

kitchen utensils, and the women mostly sold vegetables, fruit,fish and keera(green leaves). Most women now carry on their


23/36

18

trade from home, or on the footpaths where the houses arelocated. Those who deal in businesses bringing in goods from

South India cannot compete with the large-scale establishedimporters. They said that it is not worth dealing in business anylonger. The small traders who occasionally go to India to bringitems such as shalwars, kaftans and housecoats have given uptheir business. The women usually circulated these items fromhouse to house, keeping a small margin of profit for themselves(about Rs. 150 to 200 per cotton shalwar set). However, there ishardly any circulation of such goods now, according to them.21

However, the number of Muslim women who sell vegetablesand short eats has increased. In places such as Abdul HameedStreet, Silver Smith Lane and Harbour Thottam in Aluthkade(Colombo 12), they are prevented from having stalls at the topof their lanes.

Shamila is one such woman in her 40s, who used to setup her wayside stall selling vegetables in Abdul Hameed Street.She also looks after the shopping interests of richer Muslimwomen who hardly step out of their homes. She is a divorceewho had once attempted suicide because of an abusive husband.She carries burn-marks on her neck and arms. Her young childrenassist her at the stall. She said, This is my source of income. Iget the vegetables from a Sinhalese lady from Kelaniya and sharethe profit with her. This is a crowded area and is good forbusiness. I run when the police come but return to the same

place. It is really stressful. Now, I sell vegetables on the sidewalksof a small by-road in new Keselwatte (Vaalaithottam). I earn aboutRs. 1,000 to 2,000 profit daily. The dinner and breakfast trade(selling pittu and indiyappa) continues to remain a steady sourceof income for many of these women who operate from theirhomes.

Entitlement to OccupyEntitlement to OccupyEntitlement to OccupyEntitlement to OccupyEntitlement to Occupy

The first official intervention in planning the city was the Townand Country Planning Ordinance of 1946. Until then, dwellings


24/36

19

for low-income wage earners were provided by Muslim and

Sinhalese entrepreneurs who developed low-income housing

settlements. They converted city property that they either ownedor leased from the Crown.

The British colonial government was meticulous, with

all administrative details carefully recorded. They were not averse

to favouring loyal subjects of the Crown who wanted a prime

location to develop settlements in order to provide houses for

the people who toiled in furthering the commerce of the empire.

With independence came enlightened legislation, such as the

Rent Control Act, which made it difficult for tenement owners

to evict occupants. The gradual strengthening of tenant rights

made the proprietors redundant, and tenants became the

occupants in possession. Later they morphed into being the

rightful owners. From 1871 until the adoption of the Town and

Country Planning Ordinance in 1946 is a period of 75 years. In

these years, Colombo city retained the practices of the port city

of a distant colonial outpost, where misery and opulencecoexisted.

Inequality in urban living was a fact. The history of

Colombo Muslims suggests that they were part of the colonial

age and now of todays free market economy. The next 65 years,

from 1946 to 2011, was a period when emphasis was placed on

bringing the underserved areas and residents within the

infrastructure of service delivery. Running water, electricity,

health care and education had to reach the maximum number

of city residents. Given the historical fact of a Muslim

nonmigratory population and the de facto recognition of a non-

migratory population of all communities, at least for the last two

generations, this made them a people entitled to occupy their

homes. The only exception was state reservations, railway

reservations and canal banks. Strangely, only a miniscule number

of Muslims are found living in these specified areas that are statereservations.


25/36

20

The minority communities are forced to believe that plans

to oust them and divide them are an attempt to reduce their

majority status in Colombo city. In the electorate of Colombo-Central, which is really the heart of the city, there is a populationdensity of almost 300,000, out of which 200,000 are Muslim. There

is a voter base of about 139,000, out of which 79,000 according to

our calculation are Muslim. The women are obviously in a larger

proportion here than men. In the same way, Colombo-North has

a bigger proportion of Tamils. Colombo city was won by a margin

of 28,000, whereas the UNP generally obtains a margin of 60,000to 70,000 votes. So this development plan in my opinion is a

minority eviction plan, said Mujibur Rahman a UNP Provincial

Councilor.22

The municipal elections in 2011 saw a higher percentage

of voters from Colombo District as compared to the turnout for

parliamentary elections. Exclusionary development plans wereone of the main reasons for the increase in voter turnout in support

of the UNP. There is intense resistance to the development planfrom low-income families and especially minority women.

Mujibur Rahman said that Slave Island is a prime example of

people whose claim to the land they occupy goes back more than

100 years. He read the symptoms and arrived at his own diagnosis.

In the name of development, I see that there is an attempt at ethniccleansing. This is not an acceptable way to develop a city by

expelling a certain populace and making them off limits. Thereare demographic changes covertly executed. City developmentdoesnt mean road and building development. There ought to beinfrastructural development. There are very few national schoolsin the country, but most schools in the city come under the provincialcouncils. These schools are in deplorable condition, lacking inhuman and material resources from teachers to libraries andlaboratories. Rainy days are holidays. The roofs leak and childrenrun home. With about Rs. 35 lakhs allocated for a member, it is

hardly enough for development of schools or any otherinfrastructural action.23


26/36

21

Paying for Houses with UncertaintyPaying for Houses with UncertaintyPaying for Houses with UncertaintyPaying for Houses with UncertaintyPaying for Houses with Uncertainty

Sirimavo Mawatha, Stadium Gama in Grandpass, Colombo 14,

has 317 houses that will soon be demolished, affecting 400 familiesof Muslims, Sinhalese and Tamils in equal proportion. This is a

place cordoned off and built by President Premadasa when he

was the Minister of Housing in 1982. The harbour expansion

programme will compel them to relocate. There are no plans as to

where their new location will be. Officials who visited the families

inquired about their income levels and payback capacities and

assured them of plans to give them homes in condominiums. They

were assured of getting one house in place of the one they lose.Others who occupy the same home will have to find alternatives.

Muslim women here are mostly apparel factory workers

(earning about Rs. 400 a day), maids, seamstresses and small-scale

handicraft makers. The men are harbour workers, small-time

businessmen, day labourers in markets and manual workers who

load and unload lorries in warehouses and markets in Fort and

Pettah areas in Colombo. As always, the few exceptions are therare government servants.

One of the oldest residents here is a widow, Mehroon

Maleeka (63), resident for 30 years, who has been paying Rs. 50

per month for the house she lives in, at Stadium Gama. Her

daughter, who is also a widow (45) and a mother of six minor

children, works chaperoning children in the neighbourhood to

and from school.

We came to live here in 1983. This house was given to us by thegovernment when they built the Sugathadasa Stadium where ourold house was located. Then my husband was alive. We had a 20-year installment to pay. I paid until 1998 and defaulted after thedeath of my husband. We were called to the National HousingDevelopment Authority in Maligawatte, where we pay themonthly installment, and were told that there is an arrears of Rs.40,000 interest to be paid. I paid Rs. 5,000. They have deducted Rs.

3,500 as interest and Rs. 1,500. I went again and paid ten monthsrent and an accumulated interest of Rs. 3,000. Owing to our


27/36

22

difficulties we failed in regular payment. Now we try to catch upslowly. But I fear we will end up having neither the house nor themoney or even an alternative place to stay should we be asked to

leave.24

Mehroon concedes that everyone in her family (13 votes)

except for herself voted for the UNP out of gratitude for the housegiven to them. She has all along been an SLFP supporter. Minister

A.H.M. Fowzie obtained water supply for them and also

sanctioned flood relief many years ago. She said that she should

be grateful. She votes for Minister Fowzie and the SLFP.Their existence came into focus because of their

inadvertent role of defeating a government that they fearedwould evict them from their homes. Who oppresses them? They

expressed their preference for a party that offers them no solution

to their main concern, which is putting some bread or bread

crumbs on the table. This has been the unnoticed vicious trend

followed by successive governments and municipal

administrations.

ConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusion

This paper sought to shed some light on marginalized Muslim

women in the city of Colombo. They form an oppressed class of

women in our society, startlingly contradictory to the imagined

meta-narrative of the wealthy Ceylon Moors of Colombo.

These marginalized women in one sense form what wasseen by Antonio Gramsci (1971) as a group of people colonized

for their votes, oppressed and abandoned. It was mostly the UNP

that won the Colombo Municipal Council election. These

marginalized women have voted for such Muslim mayoral

candidates as M.H. Mohamed, UNP (1960-62); Jabir A. Cader, SLFP(1966-69); M.H.M. Fowzie, SLFP (1974-77); Hussain Mohamed,

UNP (1989-91); Omar Kamil UNP (1999-2002); Uvais Mohamed

Imtiyas, Independent Party (2006-2011); and now M.J.M.Muzammil, UNP (2011 to date).25In a way, they have collectively


28/36

23

contributed towards keeping them in squalor, decade afterdecade. All the Lord Mayors and all Muslim political leaders

have exploited the plight of these Muslim women to their ownadvantage. They are left with only one option to eke out amarginal existence and vote elite leaders to power in City Hall.They have been kept in their peculiar state of poverty to beexploited in the neoliberal sport of elections. They have beenkept untouched by any development programme that couldremove their oppression and marginalized status. The more theywere kept in squalor, the more Muslim candidates from the

mainstream parties were nominated and elected to the CMC.Their plight, of misery, uncertainty and deprivation, has

been lost sight of due to the docility demanded by their ownMuslim society. Abusive husbands, hungry children and destitutedaughters are preordained when born into poverty. Prayers andpiety will assure them a heaven after life. Poverty, meanwhile, isonly an inherited legacy.

The recent CMC elections show that they have thepotential to rise above adversity. They voted to be left alone totheir own devices and the usual patronage. What they soughtwas a respite from the rush to modernity. Their choice of mayorwill have very little effect in transforming their life conditions.In resisting the modernizing projects imposed on them, theyshowed resistance to an emerging powerful political society.These women, for the first time felt empowered for that brief

moment in time when they felt that they mattered. In the caseof these women, the concepts of democracy and developmentrequire that they are first released from the bondage of theirhistory. They are still confined to a space in time that to others inColombo city long preceded the age of flyovers and broadsidewalks. The cultural enclave they are caged in has to bedismantled. The shopping malls of the city testify to thecommercial ingenuity of the Muslims of Colombo. Muslim

women of the tenement gardens too live side by side in thismultiethnic, diverse city that will soon be host to a Shangri La.26


29/36

24

EndnotesEndnotesEndnotesEndnotesEndnotes1Unsourced quote attributed to Antonio Gramsci on a number of websites,

including the following: < http://.wikiquote.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci>, accessed on 15 March 2011.2Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri is Head of the Department of History,University of Colombo. He is also President, Federation of the UniversityTeachers Associations (FUTA).3The black abaya(in some cases the niqab, face cover) is currently worn

by many Muslim women. It is especially common among a number ofadolescent and teenage Muslim girls. Women sidewalk vendors of someareas in Colombo-North who the writer met were generally in their late

40s or older and were not abaya clad.4This is a reference to the Urban Development Authority (UDA), whichfunctions under Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, overseeingdevelopment-related work in urban areas.5See Table 3: Final Results of Local Authorities Elections, 8 October 2011.6The reception the Muslim ladies hosted to Lady Manning was held on5 October 1921 at Villa Stamboul (Stamboul Place, Galle Road, Kollupitya,Colombo 3), The members of the reception committee were: Mrs. S.L. NainaMarikar, Mrs. E.G. Damply, Mrs. C.M. Meera Lebbe Marikar, Mrs. M.A.C.

Muhammad, Mrs. W.M. Abdul Rahman, Mrs. S.L. Mahmood, Mrs. A.A.M.Saleem, Mrs. M.R. Akbar, Mrs. Ghouse Mohideen, Mrs. H.N.H. Jalaludeenand Mrs. H.M. Macan Markar, . See also, M.M. Thawfeeq, Memories of aPhysician Politician Dr. M.C.M. Kaleel, Surrey: Marina Academy andSupplies International. Also cited in , accessed 16 February 2012.7 He is Professor, Department of Geography, University of Sri

Jayewardenepura.8Personal communication, 27 December 2011.9 Interview with Arshad Nizamdeen, Provincial Councilor, WesternProvince, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, 28 December 2011.10Interview with an evicted woman from Mews Street, Colombo 2, 12December 2011.11Interview with an evicted woman from Mews Street, Colombo 2, 12

December 2011.11Information based on personal communication in November 2011 withofficials.13Interview in Peliyagoda, 20 December 2011.


30/36

25

14Interview at Slave Island in Mazeenas relatives house, 12 December2011.15Interview, 13 December 2011.16Interview, 12 December 2011.17Interview, 15 December 2011.18Interview with Mujibur Rahman, Muslim Provincial Councilor, WesternProvince, United National Party, 30 December 2011.19Interview with a resident of Pallithottam, Colombo 12, 2 January 2012.20 Personal communication with a visiting relative at the formerinterviewees place.21Information based on interviews with women hawkers.22

Interview with Mujibur Rahman, Muslim Provincial Councilor, WesternProvince, United National Party, 30 December 2011.23Ibid.24Interview with one of the earliest residents of the area.25See elections results in Table 3.26An extravagant luxury hotel and resort chain, found in key cities

globally.

ReferencesReferencesReferencesReferencesReferences

Ameer, Ali. 1987. Muslims and Capitalism in British Ceylon (SriLanka): The Colonial Image and CommunitysBehaviour,Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs,Instituteof Muslim Minority Affairs, University of Utah, vol. 8,no. 2, 311-44.

Census of the Island of Ceylon 1871. Colombo: GovernmentPrinter.

Census of Population 1971. Colombo: Department of Census andStatistics.

Deheragoda, Krishan. 2011. The Re-housing Option forColombos Poor, accessed 30 November 2011.

Dewasiri, Nirmal Ranjith. 2011. CMC Defeat: Is It a Challengeto the Government? Daily Mirror, 25 October (translatedby Minna Thaheer from an interview of Dewasiri, Head

of the Department of History, Colombo University, byBingun Menaka Gamage, Lankadeepa, 18 October 2011).


31/36

26

Gramsci, Antonio. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooksof Antonio Gramsci. (translated by Quentin Hoare and

Geoffrey Nowell Smith from the London 1971 edition).London: Lawrence and Wishart.Gramsci, Antonio. 1999. History of the Subaltern Classes, in

Classics in Politics (E-book).Hulugalle, H.A.J. 1965. Centenary Volume of the Colombo

Municipal Council 1865-1965. Colombo: CeylonGovernment Press, Colombo Municipal Council.

Macan-Markar Effendi, Haji Sir Muhammad. Sri Lanka MoorFamily Genealogy. , accessed 15 November 2011.

Macan Markar, Mohamed. , accessed 3 February2012.

Perera, Amantha. 2012. Slum Cities in South Asia Need BetterPlanning, 10 April 10. , accessed 15 April 2012.

Sri Lankan Defence Ministry Begins Evicting Poor in Colombo.http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/sril-m10.shtml.

Statistical Abstract 2009. Colombo: Department of Census andStatistics.

Thawfeeq, M.M. 1987. Memories of a Physician Politician Dr.MCM Kaleel. Surrey: Marina Academy and SuppliesInternational.

Minna Thaheer is Associate Director, Regional Centre for StrategicStudies. She is also a PhD candidate in the Department of PoliticalScience and Public Policy, University of Colombo.


32/36

27

Women selling sweetmeats and savories in Colombo 12. (Above

and below)


33/36

28

Women engaged in micro business of tinkering

aluminum-

ware in Colombo 12.

A stall keeper with short eats in Slave Island, Colombo 2.


34/36

29

The dreaded yellow sticker on the doors of houses in the

labyrinth of a Tennement garden in, Mattakkuliya,

Colombo 14.


35/36

30

Tenement Garden down Java Lane, 21st Garden,

Colombo 2.

Photos courtesy : Minna Thaheer


36/36

muslim women in the tenement gardens of colombo: a story of marginalization, legitimized by a...

Documents