PROBLEMAS EN LA ESPECIACIÓN

Women’s Watch, investigated the emergence of female-headed households in SL moving into the twenty first century. She highlights the women’s needs and concerns in the context of armed conflict by way of looking at various key areas that have been identified by organisations and individuals who have been working at ground level in places of armed conflict: “(1) the emotional and personal needs of these women and their households, and (2) the recognition of their needs and concerns at public level.”40 _While

acknowledging the emergence of female-headed families out of the armed conflict, Kottegoda stresses how important it is that the state and NGO’s formulate programmes to support those female-headed households and handle the challenges these women face on a daily basis.41

Sara Delamont states that it is indispensible to seek out the “marvellous tales of others as they provide the basic knowledge and some guidelines to begin the study.”42 _{However, it is also important to bear in mind that}

no two fieldwork-situations are the same, meaning that the researchers, as well as the people being studied, change with time, experience and different political, social, cultural and religious changes.

The findings of these previous research studies and the focus on the war-widows’ resistance to and coping with their marginalisation in SL, will be important elements in the next chapter of this study where the existing theologies in SL will be challenged.

3.3 Formulating an In-Depth-Interview Guide

The experience of war-widows was explored through in-depth interviews, a face-to-face dialogue between the widows and the researcher, based on open-ended questions.43 _{In-depth interviewing is described as “a}

meaning-making partnership between interviewers and their respondents”, which indicates that in-depth interviews are “a special kind of knowledge-

40 Sepalika Kottegoda, “Female Headed Households in Situation of Armed Conflict: A Note on Some Issues of Concern,” Nivedini: Journal of Gender Studies 14, no. 2 (December 1996): 12-17.

41 Cf. Ibid., 17.

42 Sara Delamont, Fieldwork in Educational Settings: Methods, Pitfalls and

Perspectives, 2nd _{edition (London: Routledge, 2002), 30.}

producing conversation.”44 _{It is also important to mention the following}

characteristics of in-depth interviews that are included in the present study: (1) Using a semi-structured interview guide to prompt the data collection; (2) Establishing a rapport (a trust relationship) between the interviewer and interviewee; (3) Asking questions in an open, emphatic way; and (4) Motivating the interviewees to tell their stories by probing.45

The general themes included in the in-depth-interview guide for the present study were: (1) The experience of becoming a war-widow; (2) The experience of remaining a widow; (3) The changes and challenges that war-widows have to face; (4) New ways of dealing with widowhood in the prevailing social, cultural and religious situation; (5) War-widows’ personal views about God/s and religion and their influence on life. Since the interview guide is a framework and not a rigid agenda, it helped to begin the conversation with the key element of flexibility.

Each selected war-widow was informed about the purpose of the research and what was expected of her, she was made aware of the fact that she was a volunteer and could withdraw at any time with no negative repercussions and she was told that she could rest assured that confidentiality would be protected. The primary objective when working with human participants in research is, ‘But first, do not harm.’ Hence, priority was given to affirming the security and dignity of the respondents during the interviews. All the arrangements, except in a few cases, were organised at the convenience of the respondents. Recordings of the interviews were made with the consent of the respondents and they are not available due to security reasons.

3.4 Pre-Testing the Interview Guide: A Pilot Study

A pilot study is a collection of preliminary information about the fieldwork, which determines “the effectiveness of the interview guide in terms of both the content and process of the focus group.”46 _{The pilot}

group consisted of a Sinhala Buddhist, a Sinhala Christian and two Tamil Christians. They helped to get an idea of how the interview guide worked in practice. Furthermore, pre-testing the questionnaire with a pilot group helped to plan all the necessary arrangements regarding the interviews.

44 Monique Hennink, Inge Hutter, Ajay Bailey, Qualitative Research Methods (London, Thousand Oaks, and New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2011), 109. 45 Cf. Ibid., 109.

3.5 The Selection of the Respondents: The Research Sample

With a view to the focus on war-widows’ new ways of dealing with their suffering in the present context, the research sample consisted of eighteen war-widows selected on the basis of their ethnicity, religion and social class. The selection consisted of seven Tamil and eleven Sinhala war-widows. All of the Tamil war-widows were Christians and out of the eleven Sinhala war-widows seven were Buddhists and four Christians. The research sample was selected from seven provinces of the country: North, East, South, West, North-Central, Central and Sabaragamuwa (figure 1). As to the selection of Tamil war-widows, priority was given to the war- widows in the ‘Vanni’ area where the last phase of the war took place and a great number of Tamil women became war-widows (figures 1and 2).

Figure 1: Location of the Provinces Figure 2: Vanni Area in the Nortth

Eastern Province Northern Province North Central Province Central Province Sabaragamuwa Province Uva Province Southern Province Western Province North Western Province

A large number of Tamils along with Sinhalese and Muslims were made war-widows following the war between the GoSL and the LTTE that ended in 2009. Hence, the fieldwork was carried out in only two ethnic communities – Sinhala and Tamil – and two religious communities – Buddhist and Christian. At present, Buddhists in SL are Sinhalese and Hindus are Tamils. Christianity is the religion of some Tamils and some

Northern Province

Sinhalese. Even though it would be important to carry out this study among all the ethnic and religious communities in the country, the limited focus of this study on the Sinhala Buddhists, Sinhala Christians and Tamil Christians was imperative in order to keep the study within a manageable academic framework. The main reason for selecting Tamil Christians, who are the minority of Tamils, instead of Hindus, who are the majority, was the objective to highlight the situation of both Tamil and Sinhala Christians.

The war-widows interviewed were between twenty-eight to fifty- nine years of age. The research sample consisted of grassroots activists, women who were involved in different occupations. Some of them have re-married and some remained single. The following is a summary of the respondents:

Table: 1 Summary of the Respondents

No Anonymous Name

Age Ethnicity Religion Region Occupation Education

Tamil-Christian war-widows

1 Malar 28 Tamil Christian North Road mending/

working in a factory

O/L*

2 Therese 30 Tamil Christian North Working in a bag

factory

A/L*

3 Rita 35 Tamil Christian North Working in a crab

factory

O/L

4 Rani 37 Tamil Christian North Working in a

factory

Graduate

5 Kamalani 39 Tamil Christian North Food item

business-group of war-widows

A/L

6 Selvy 52 Tamil Christian North Teacher Graduate

No Anonymous Name

Age Ethnicity Religion Region Occupation Education

Sinhala-Christian war-widows

08 Magdalene 28 Sinhala Christian West Working in a

small garment factory

O/L

09 Judith 35 Sinhala Christian South Cultivation A/L

10 Anne 48 Sinhala Christian West Planning to open

a salon

Graduate

11 Bernadette 43 Sinhala Christian West Supervisor of a

garment factory A/L

Sinhala-Buddhist war-widows

12 Vishaka 34 Sinhala Buddhist Central Housewife A/L

13 Pushpa 35 Sinhala Buddhist South Housewife O/L

14 Devika 38 Sinhala Buddhist South Teacher Graduate

15 Anoma 40 Sinhala Buddhist Sabarag-

amuwa

Housewife Graduate

16 Samudra 42 Sinhala Buddhist Central Garment busines O/L

17 Prabodha 45 Sinhala Buddhist East Politician-

Divisional

Graduate

18 Yashoda 55 Sinhala Buddhist North

Central

Housewife O/L

* A/L – Advanced Level Exam (17-18 years old) * O/L – Ordinary Level Exam (16 years old) * Grade 8 (13 years old)