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The Ideal Of Liberation: Women In Sri Lanka’S Civil War, Akeela Makshood

History Honors Program

In the 1990s, videos emerged from the war-torn Northern peninsula of Sri Lanka of young, female LTTE¹ cadres graduating from basic military training. Donning tiger-striped attire, groups of young girls and women were garlanded for their accomplishments by a woman standing out in stark contrast to the Tamil²fighters. Known endearingly as “Aunty” amongst the Tigers, Adele Ann Wilby came to be known internationally as the “White Tiger.” Here she was, the Australian-born former nurse, in the epicenter of an island’s civil war, garlanding female volunteers during a ceremony where they received their cyanide capsules. Adele herself wore …