Sarala Emmanuel

Sarala Emmanuel is a feminist activist and researcher based in Batticaloa, Eastern Sri Lanka. She has worked for two decades with communities of primarily Tamil-speaking women affected by war and violence. Apart from supporting longstanding struggles of truth, accountability, and justice for war-time violations, Sarala has also been working closely with rural women’s groups on economic rights, labour rights, LGBTIQ+ rights, rights of women living with disabilities, and responding to gender-based violence. Sarala also is a visiting lecturer at the Open University of Sri Lanka and the Postgraduate Institute of the University of Colombo. 

Sarala is a founder member of the Feminist Collective for Economic Justice, an independent group formed in 2022, providing alternative discourses on the economic crisis and debt justice in Sri Lanka. Her research areas include women and peace-building, sexual violence and transitional justice, land dispossession, women living with disabilities, rural women food producers, and socio-economic rights. At a regional and international levels, she is a member of feminist networks such as SANGAT South Asia, APWLD, Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR) and DAWN.

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