My Pen Is Sharp like the Gun in My Hand: On the Revolutionary Feminism of the Tamil Tigers

Published by Sming Sming Books | May 2025 [SOLD OUT]
ISBN 978-1-953189-19-6 | English | 126 pages | 5 x 7 in | Softcover, spiral-bound | Edition of 300

In My Pen Is Sharp like the Gun in My Hand, Rebecca Devika Dharmapalan challenges narrow legal and political frameworks that have defined how women in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are understood. Through an archival and feminist approach, the book centers the creative, emotional, and political lives of LTTE women as they respond to genocide and participate in revolutionary struggle.

This 126-page work combines Dharmapalan’s analysis with historic photographs by Roger Parton, poetry compiled and translated by Dr. N. Malathy, and a recent interview with K., a former LTTE cadre, offering a rare window into the aesthetics of resistance and the feminist politics embedded within armed struggle.

“Women in revolutionary movements are often erased or misrepresented. Their fight is not only for sovereignty, but for the radical futures of feminism itself.” — Rebecca Devika Dharmapalan