Thiagarajah Selvanithy or (Selvi) from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

International PEN award PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

winner in 1992, who was abducted and executed by the

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

Biography

Selvi was born into a peasant family in Semamadu, a village about 80 miles south of Jaffna.

Activism

Selvi was a Tamil language poet from Jaffna in Sri Lanka. A third-year student in Theater and Drama Arts in the

University of Jaffna The University of Jaffna ( ta, யாழ்ப்பாணப் பல்கலைக்கழகம், translit=Yāḻppāṇap Palkalaikkaḻakam; si, යාපනය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, ''Yāpanaya Viśvavidyālaya''; ...

. She was the founder of a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

journal called ''Tholi'' and was a gifted young poet who in her work deplored the carnage brought about by the Sri Lankan civil war. Selvi also produced two plays, one about dowry payments and the other about rapes.

Abduction

On 30 August 1991, Selvi was arrested by the

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

, a rebel group fighting for independence for minority

Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Pro ...

in Sri Lanka. The day before her abduction she was about to star in a play about the role of women in the

Palestinian intifada The First Intifada, or First Palestinian Intifada (also known simply as the intifada or intifadah),The word ''intifada'' () is an Arabic word meaning "uprising". Its strict Arabic transliteration is '. was a sustained series of Palestinian ...

. She was a prominent member of ''Poorani Illam'', a women's center in Jaffna, which gives support to women traumatized by government bombing raids and bereavement.

Murder

In 1997, LTTE sources acknowledged that she was killed along with another dissident, one Manoharan, also a final year University student. Although their opposition to the LTTE was non-violent, they were both killed in the LTTE's prison camps.

References

*
UTHR(J) report on Selvy's death
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiyagarajah, Chelvy Year of birth missing 1997 deaths Sri Lankan Tamil poets Assassinated Sri Lankan activists Kidnapped Sri Lankan people Sri Lankan Hindus People killed during the Sri Lankan Civil War Kidnappings in Sri Lanka Violence against women in Sri Lanka

Biography

Activism

Abduction

Murder

See also

References