Everystory Sri Lanka is a feminist storytelling and knowledge-sharing collective based in Sri Lanka and working across South Asia.

This is our flagship project: Stories of Sri Lankan Women. Through this work, we aim to gather as many stories as possible of inspirational Sri Lankan women born in the 20th and 21st century whose lives, work, and experience have and have been shaped by our social, political, and cultural contexts. At this stage, we intend to create a compendium of Sri Lankan women’s stories drawing out synergies across places and contexts, spotlighting on catalytic moments, and exploring where and how we can tell feminist histories.

About the Work

In October 2021, we launched the first thirty stories collected through this work to the public. The collection, development, publishing, and launching of these stories have all been made possible by the generous support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. We are proud to present into the public domain the first thirty stories from the Stories of Sri Lankan Women project.

The women featured in this first phase are diverse, and each has her own compelling journey to share. We intentionally chose to highlight stories of women currently living and based in Sri Lanka or who have been for a greater portion of their lives. The stories span across generations, industries, experiences, race, ethnicity, religion, and historical contexts. It is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of any kind, but rather, a glimpse of the phenomenal herstories that exist.

Through this mailing list, we will share with you the stories from the first phase of our work as they are concurrently released on our social media accounts.

You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn (where you can find tri-lingual summaries of each of the stories as well) and our Medium page.

Read the Stories

Forging a New Chapter in a Legacy: Heshma Wignaraja by Sharanya Sekaram | by Everystory Sri Lanka | Nov, 2021 | Medium — everystorysrilanka.medium.com

"To me, it's my language. It's what I create with. And I want to be able to share that as best as possible with the world.”

-Heshma Wignaraja (Artistic Director: Chitrasena Dance Company)

A Life of Changing Roles Lived by an Extraordinary Woman: Ferial Ashraff | by Everystory Sri Lanka | Nov, 2021 | Medium — everystorysrilanka.medium.com

“I truly believe we will be able to heal the divisions in this country, it is a very difficult divide to bridge, but we should be able to bridge it. I am still optimistic.” 

-Ferial Ashraff (Former Member of Parliament, Cabinet Minister, and Former High Commissioner to Singapore)

From the Backyard to Lord’s: How Shashikala Siriwardena Conquered the World | by Everystory Sri Lanka | Nov, 2021 | Medium — everystorysrilanka.medium.com

“I think there are many women who have proven through action rather than just words that the concept of patriarchy is one that need not exist in the world” 

-Shashikala Siriwardena (Sri Lankan Cricketer, Former Captain: Sri Lanka Women’s National Cricket Team)

Inspiring a Generation to Reach Higher: Kasturi Chellaraja-Wilson | by Everystory Sri Lanka | Nov, 2021 | Medium — everystorysrilanka.medium.com

“One thing I learned very early is finding your inner self. What makes you happy? What is your inner sense of fulfilment?”

-Kasturi Chellaraja-Wilson (Group CEO - Hemas Holdings PLC )

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If you have any questions, suggestions, feedback or would like to support this work please email us at [email protected]