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
Social Scientists Association 2014
ISBN 978-955-0762-25-5
Published by
Social Scientists Association
12, Sulaiman Terrace,
Colombo 5, Sri Lanka.
Tel: +94-11-2501339 / 2504623
www.ssalanka.org
Printed by
World Vision Graphics
077 2928907
Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Acknowledgements
I wish to thank all individuals who helped me with this
publication. First and foremost, I wish to thank Dr Kumari
Jayawardena and Prof Jayadeva Uyangoda for all the
encouragement and guidance. My sincere thanks are also
extended to Mr. Pradeep Peiris, Council Member, Ms Rasika
Chandrasekara, Ms Buddhima Padmasiri, the SSA team for all
the generous support and Ms. Judy W. Pasqualge for her valuable
editorial services. I am also grateful to all the interviewees in the
study for spending time with me.
Finally, I owe a great deal of gratitude to my father, my
sister and my son, Adheeb for their love that sustains me.
Minna Thaheer
1
Muslim W Muslim W Muslim W Muslim W Muslim Women in the T omen in the T omen in the T omen in the T omen in the Tenement Gar enement Gar enement Gar enement Gar enement Gardens of dens of dens of dens of dens of
Colombo: Colombo: Colombo: Colombo: Colombo:
A Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by a A Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by a A Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by a A Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by a A Story of Marginalization, Legitimized by a
Culture of Oppression Culture of Oppression Culture of Oppression Culture of Oppression Culture of Oppression
The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and
without becoming disillusioned.
1
Antonio Gramsci
Soon after the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) elections in
October 2011, historian and activist Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri
2
gave
an interesting explanation to the Lankadeepa newspaper on why
the poor and working-class voters of Colombo had made the
United National Party (UNP) victory possible. They are not the
owners of the mansion that is the UNP. They are only poor tenants
taking 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-veiled
3
Muslim 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 a
blot on the cityscape. As Dewasiri with great sensitivity (or the
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 a
separate opposition to it. On the other hand, the promise of
making Colombo an authority is very attractive. The majority of
people who use Colombo comprise the floating population that
comes in the morning and goes out of Colombo in the evening.
For these people, a Colombo city administered by the Ministry
of Defence, clean and attractive, is something to be desired. It is
not attractive to the poor people living within Colombo. For them,
Colombo is a place where they make a living. Removing garbage
is attractive to the ordinary person. It is not attractive to people
who make a living out of garbage. I am not suggesting that people
should be allowed to live in the midst of garbage. I am only giving
voice to the realities that exist. The political power of the country
rests not in the hands of the people who live in Colombo but on
those who come to Colombo in the morning and leave Colombo
in the evening. The formation of an authority
4
that supersedes
the 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 surging
ahead 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).
5
These 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. They
may occasionally sway towards them under distant
3
circumstances but they never become an organic part of the UPFA
constituency. The constituency that refuses its allegiance to the
UPFA consists of the North and the people in metropolitan
Colombo. It doesnt necessarily mean that there are no other such
groupings. In fact, there are other groups such as the Muslim
community and the plantation Tamil community who do not form
a part of the UPFA constituency. However, the leadership of these
political groups may in return for political patronage help the
UPFA in their quest for power. But, that does not happen by
rewarding 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 shanties
in 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. The
physical 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).
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 its
Sinhalese 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. They
were 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
Night
6
reception to the wife of British Governor Sir Henry
Manning 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 of
Colombo 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.
7
He 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 that
the poor make economics out of the squalor in slums and shanties,
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 the
stubborn 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 of
their leaders in politics and civil society.
The T The T The T The T The Tenement Gar enement Gar enement Gar enement Gar enement Garden W den W den W den W den Women omen omen omen omen
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 manual
workers, who reside in the tenement gardens called watte in
Sinhala or thottam in 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 and
Colombo-North.
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 (Ali
1987:311). 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 commercial
and 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 the
corpse 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 frittered
or 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
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 roof
over 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 all
revealed 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 their
merchandise 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.
8
Eviction: Eviction: Eviction: Eviction: Eviction: An An An An An Act of T Act of T Act of T Act of T Act of Terr err err err errorism orism orism orism orism
Mews Street in Slave Island is an example of how 20 houses
were razed to the ground with about 5 days notice to the
residents. 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 original
deeds that gave them legal title to their land. Of the 20 houses, in
Mews 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 whom
they have been traditionally supporting. We facilitated the legal
process to some extent. Their complaints are now being heard in
courts, where they have sought legal remedy after the demolition.
They have succeeded in obtaining some relief in the form of an
interim court order where an allowance is paid until they are
resettled. Minister Rauff Hakeem spoke to the UDA (Urban
Development Authority) and sought explanation. These families
have some hope. Of the Glennie Street residents who were evicted,
about 74 families got houses but the way they got evicted was
inhuman. 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.
9
Fathima Silmiya Sheriff (30), the youngest of a family of
nine, is one woman affected by the overnight appropriation of
her home by the Urban Development Authority.
We were given the house in Mews Street during President
Premadasas time. We have an original deed. My father is a retired
cashier. We have lived in Mews Street for the last 70 years. We
are a family of nine with three girls and four boys. There were
almost 3,000 army men who came to demolish our houses. We
screamed and cried our lives out. But all was gone in a few hours.
We hold original deeds to our houses and have filed cases asking
for compensation. A Muslim politician, formerly of the CMC
promised to help us. He said he will take up our issue with the
president. He let us down. He never answered his phone when
our houses were being demolished. He never sighted this area
even during the municipal elections.
10
Sithy Fathima (63) said,
They demolished our houses on a Friday, giving us no time to go
to court. We were on the road under cloth tents for a week then
moved in with our relatives. We have now been promised new
houses in Dematagoda flats and are being compensated with key
money of Rs. 96,000 for a year (that is inclusive of Rs. 8,000 a
month) for the rent that we pay as per court order. With the
intervention of Minister Hakeem we got it increased to Rs. 10,000,
as it is not possible to find places in Colombo for any lesser rent.
11
Changing Lifestyles Changing Lifestyles Changing Lifestyles Changing Lifestyles Changing Lifestyles
The evacuation of 30 houses in Glennie Street affected a
considerable number of Malay and Moor families where women
headed the household. According to official sources,
12
other areas
earmarked for development, with residents to be moved or
evicted, include Slave Island (Colombo 2), Malay Street, Masjidul
Jamiya Road, Justice Akbar Mawatha, Java Lane, De Soysa Street
and Station Passage. Muslims living in these areas constitute 80%
of residents with the balance comprising Sinhalese and Tamil.
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 (Colombo
10), 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), who
was 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 of
work. She said,
11
My husband was a drunkard and a wastrel. He left us with nothing
when he died. It is a very difficult life to lead with grown-up
daughters. 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 domestic
helper 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,
15
she said. Her sister Ummu Zekiya (42) is a
worker in a school canteen. She has three children aged 16, 12
and 10. Both sisters, who lived for many years in their deceased
mothers 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 W Disenfranchisement of the W Disenfranchisement of the W Disenfranchisement of the W Disenfranchisement of the Weak eak eak eak eak
After 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, said
they were perennial UNP voters. They had voted at every
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 the
incident [eviction of Mews Street residents] on 8 May 2010. Our
grandchildren too have lost their claim over this place and as a
result cannot seek admission to a school here. We lost our own
homes 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 bank
politics.
13
Fear of Development Fear of Development Fear of Development Fear of Development Fear of Development
Most women who were interviewed for this pamphlet had not
voted before due to indifference, but did vote at the last CMC
elections. 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, the
UNP 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 have
shown little empathy with these low-income families.
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 the
island. Their number increased to 855.7 thousand in 1971. Since
the census of 1911 Moors have been enumerated separately as
Sri Lanka Moors and Indian Moors and at the Census of 1911,
32.7 thousand or 12.3% of the Moors were of Indian origin. The
percentage of Indian Moors to the total Moor population has
gradually 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. Unlike
the Tamils, the Moors have increased in their absolute numbers
as well as in their proportions to the total population. The sharp
increase in absolute numbers as well as in the proportions of the
Sri Lankan Moors and the corresponding decline in the case of
the Indian suggest that Indian Moors may have been misreported
as Sri Lanka Moors at the Censuses of 1963 and 1961. (Census of
Population 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. The
president himself campaigned in Colombo-Central and Colombo-
15
North. The Defence Secretary identified with the city redevelopment
tried to appease the residents in areas earmarked for
redevelopment. But they failed. This is a Tamil-speaking
municipality. One of the main reasons for the UPFA defeat is that
the Mahinda Rajapaksa government has resorted to many actions
that have hurt the sentiments of the Tamil-speaking people (both
Tamil and Muslim) out of disregard for this polity. This has
affected the Muslims badly. The decision to evict people for
development work mainly affected Tamil- and Muslim-populated
areas as they were targeted in a major way for development. This
in turn has had a profound effect on these communities. This is
the main reason for the government to lose the elections. These
ordinary low-income groups of minorities realized that voting
for the government would mean that they would lose their
livelihoods 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 friends
and relations of their extended families to give them a sense of
security 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 because
the 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. (Thottam literally 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.
16
She said,
We were never interested in voting before. This time we were
determined to vote to make sure that the governments development
plans would not oust us from our homes. Some officials came to
every house down our lane about seven months ago. They stuck a
yellow sticker on our door. They inquired from us, what our source
of income is, how much we earn and how much is spent for a
month? They asked us if we were willing to leave this house if we
were given another outside Colombo. We flatly refused. They told
us 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 storeys
and 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 from
parents. Muslim men come to the womens home after marriage
a practice in the Colombo Muslim community. Should they be
asked to leave, invariably a conflict arises as to who should get
the 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 visited
our house. Since we were not at home, they got my son to pose
with a board bearing our house number for a photograph. There
are rumours that we may get houses in Kolonnawa. I fear they
want us to leave Colombo and settle down in remote areas outside
Colombo. I voted this time after a long time. I thought I would be
asked to leave my house and settle outside Colombo. I fear leaving
mainly owing to my childrens schooling. Apparently, there are
plans to resettle us outside Colombo. My husband is an employee
in the harbour. How can we lead normal lives if we get ousted?
20
17
Loss of Livelihood Loss of Livelihood Loss of Livelihood Loss of Livelihood Loss of Livelihood
The women who were affected had wayside stalls selling
aluminum pots and pans, or savouries and sweet-meats, in their
lanes 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, 1
st
Cross to 5
th
Cross Streets, Keyser
Street, 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
18
trade from home, or on the footpaths where the houses are
located. Those who deal in businesses bringing in goods from
South India cannot compete with the large-scale established
importers. They said that it is not worth dealing in business any
longer. The small traders who occasionally go to India to bring
items such as shalwars, kaftans and housecoats have given up
their business. The women usually circulated these items from
house to house, keeping a small margin of profit for themselves
(about Rs. 150 to 200 per cotton shalwar set). However, there is
hardly any circulation of such goods now, according to them.
21
However, the number of Muslim women who sell vegetables
and short eats has increased. In places such as Abdul Hameed
Street, Silver Smith Lane and Harbour Thottam in Aluthkade
(Colombo 12), they are prevented from having stalls at the top
of their lanes.
Shamila is one such woman in her 40s, who used to set
up her wayside stall selling vegetables in Abdul Hameed Street.
She also looks after the shopping interests of richer Muslim
women who hardly step out of their homes. She is a divorcee
who had once attempted suicide because of an abusive husband.
She carries burn-marks on her neck and arms. Her young children
assist her at the stall. She said, This is my source of income. I
get the vegetables from a Sinhalese lady from Kelaniya and share
the profit with her. This is a crowded area and is good for
business. I run when the police come but return to the same
place. It is really stressful. Now, I sell vegetables on the sidewalks
of a small by-road in new Keselwatte (Vaalaithottam). I earn about
Rs. 1,000 to 2,000 profit daily. The dinner and breakfast trade
(selling pittu and indiyappa) continues to remain a steady source
of income for many of these women who operate from their
homes.
Entitlement to Occupy Entitlement to Occupy Entitlement to Occupy Entitlement to Occupy Entitlement to Occupy
The first official intervention in planning the city was the Town
and Country Planning Ordinance of 1946. Until then, dwellings
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 owned
or 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 opulence
coexisted.
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 state
reservations.
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 population
density 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 60,000
to 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 were
one of the main reasons for the increase in voter turnout in support
of the UNP. There is intense resistance to the development plan
from 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 ethnic
cleansing. This is not an acceptable way to develop a city by
expelling a certain populace and making them off limits. There
are demographic changes covertly executed. City development
doesnt mean road and building development. There ought to be
infrastructural development. There are very few national schools
in the country, but most schools in the city come under the provincial
councils. These schools are in deplorable condition, lacking in
human and material resources from teachers to libraries and
laboratories. Rainy days are holidays. The roofs leak and children
run home. With about Rs. 35 lakhs allocated for a member, it is
hardly enough for development of schools or any other
infrastructural action.
23
21
Paying for Houses with Uncertainty Paying for Houses with Uncertainty Paying for Houses with Uncertainty Paying for Houses with Uncertainty Paying for Houses with Uncertainty
Sirimavo Mawatha, Stadium Gama in Grandpass, Colombo 14,
has 317 houses that will soon be demolished, affecting 400 families
of 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 the
rare 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 the
government when they built the Sugathadasa Stadium where our
old house was located. Then my husband was alive. We had a 20-
year installment to pay. I paid until 1998 and defaulted after the
death of my husband. We were called to the National Housing
Development Authority in Maligawatte, where we pay the
monthly 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 months
rent and an accumulated interest of Rs. 3,000. Owing to our
22
difficulties we failed in regular payment. Now we try to catch up
slowly. But I fear we will end up having neither the house nor the
money 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 house
given 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 feared
would 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.
Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
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 was
seen 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).
25
In a way, they have collectively
23
contributed towards keeping them in squalor, decade after
decade. All the Lord Mayors and all Muslim political leaders
have exploited the plight of these Muslim women to their own
advantage. They are left with only one option to eke out a
marginal existence and vote elite leaders to power in City Hall.
They have been kept in their peculiar state of poverty to be
exploited in the neoliberal sport of elections. They have been
kept untouched by any development programme that could
remove their oppression and marginalized status. The more they
were 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 own
Muslim society. Abusive husbands, hungry children and destitute
daughters are preordained when born into poverty. Prayers and
piety will assure them a heaven after life. Poverty, meanwhile, is
only an inherited legacy.
The recent CMC elections show that they have the
potential to rise above adversity. They voted to be left alone to
their own devices and the usual patronage. What they sought
was a respite from the rush to modernity. Their choice of mayor
will have very little effect in transforming their life conditions.
In resisting the modernizing projects imposed on them, they
showed 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 case
of these women, the concepts of democracy and development
require that they are first released from the bondage of their
history. They are still confined to a space in time that to others in
Colombo city long preceded the age of flyovers and broad
sidewalks. The cultural enclave they are caged in has to be
dismantled. The shopping malls of the city testify to the
commercial ingenuity of the Muslims of Colombo. Muslim
women of the tenement gardens too live side by side in this
multiethnic, diverse city that will soon be host to a Shangri La.
26
24
Endnotes Endnotes Endnotes Endnotes Endnotes
1
Unsourced quote attributed to Antonio Gramsci on a number of websites,
including the following: < http://.wikiquote.org/wiki/Antonio_
Gramsci>, accessed on 15 March 2011.
2
Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri is Head of the Department of History,
University of Colombo. He is also President, Federation of the University
Teachers Associations (FUTA).
3
The black abaya (in some cases the niqab, face cover) is currently worn
by many Muslim women. It is especially common among a number of
adolescent and teenage Muslim girls. Women sidewalk vendors of some
areas in Colombo-North who the writer met were generally in their late
40s or older and were not abaya clad.
4
This is a reference to the Urban Development Authority (UDA), which
functions under Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, overseeing
development-related work in urban areas.
5
See Table 3: Final Results of Local Authorities Elections, 8 October 2011.
6
The reception the Muslim ladies hosted to Lady Manning was held on
5 October 1921 at Villa Stamboul (Stamboul Place, Galle Road, Kollupitya,
Colombo 3), The members of the reception committee were: Mrs. S.L. Naina
Marikar, 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. Jalaludeen
and Mrs. H.M. Macan Markar, <http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
~lkawgw/en097.html>. See also, M.M. Thawfeeq, Memories of a
Physician Politician Dr. M.C.M. Kaleel, Surrey: Marina Academy and
Supplies International. Also cited in <http://w.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
~lkawgw/mmacanmarkar.htm>, accessed 16 February 2012.
7
He is Professor, Department of Geography, University of Sri
Jayewardenepura.
8
Personal communication, 27 December 2011.
9
Interview with Arshad Nizamdeen, Provincial Councilor, Western
Province, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, 28 December 2011.
10
Interview with an evicted woman from Mews Street, Colombo 2, 12
December 2011.
11
Interview with an evicted woman from Mews Street, Colombo 2, 12
December 2011.
11
Information based on personal communication in November 2011 with
officials.
13
Interview in Peliyagoda, 20 December 2011.
25
14
Interview at Slave Island in Mazeenas relatives house, 12 December
2011.
15
Interview, 13 December 2011.
16
Interview, 12 December 2011.
17
Interview, 15 December 2011.
18
Interview with Mujibur Rahman, Muslim Provincial Councilor, Western
Province, United National Party, 30 December 2011.
19
Interview with a resident of Pallithottam, Colombo 12, 2 January 2012.
20
Personal communication with a visiting relative at the former
interviewees place.
21
Information based on interviews with women hawkers.
22
Interview with Mujibur Rahman, Muslim Provincial Councilor, Western
Province, United National Party, 30 December 2011.
23
Ibid.
24
Interview with one of the earliest residents of the area.
25
See elections results in Table 3.
26
An extravagant luxury hotel and resort chain, found in key cities
globally.
References References References References References
Ameer, Ali. 1987. Muslims and Capitalism in British Ceylon (Sri
Lanka): The Colonial Image and Communitys
Behaviour, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Institute
of Muslim Minority Affairs, University of Utah, vol. 8,
no. 2, 311-44.
Census of the Island of Ceylon 1871. Colombo: Government
Printer.
Census of Population 1971. Colombo: Department of Census and
Statistics.
Deheragoda, Krishan. 2011. The Re-housing Option for
Colombos Poor, <http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname
=20111004_05>accessed 30 November 2011.
Dewasiri, Nirmal Ranjith. 2011. CMC Defeat: Is It a Challenge
to the Government? Daily Mirror, 25 October (translated
by Minna Thaheer from an interview of Dewasiri, Head
of the Department of History, Colombo University, by
Bingun Menaka Gamage, Lankadeepa, 18 October 2011).
26
Gramsci, Antonio. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks
of 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: Ceylon
Government Press, Colombo Municipal Council.
Macan-Markar Effendi, Haji Sir Muhammad. Sri Lanka Moor
Family Genealogy. <http://www.rootsweb.ancestry. com/
~lkawgw/gen097.html>, accessed 15 November 2011.
Macan Markar, Mohamed. <http://w.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
~lkawgw/mmacanmarkar.html>, accessed 3 February
2012.
Perera, Amantha. 2012. Slum Cities in South Asia Need Better
Planning, 10 April 10. <http://www.theguardian.com/
global-development/2012/apr/10/slum-cities-south-asia-
planning>, accessed 15 April 2012.
Sri Lankan Defence Ministry Begins Evicting Poor in Colombo.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/sril-
m10.shtml.
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International.
Minna Thaheer is Associate Director, Regional Centre for Strategic
Studies. She is also a PhD candidate in the Department of Political
Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo.
27
Women selling sweetmeats and savories in Colombo 12. (Above
and below)
28
Women engaged in micro business of tinkering
aluminum-ware in Colombo 12.
A stall keeper with short eats in Slave Island, Colombo 2.
29
The dreaded yellow sticker on the doors of houses in the
labyrinth of a Tennement garden in, Mattakkuliya,
Colombo 14.
30
Tenement Garden down Java Lane, 21st Garden,
Colombo 2.
Photos courtesy : Minna Thaheer