Worshipping Mothers in Public While Women Are Trafficked in Private: Sri Lanka's Glaring Contradiction

A Nation Caught Between Reverence and Reality

Sri Lanka has long prided itself on a deep cultural reverence for mothers and women, celebrating them through religious observance, public ceremony, and social tradition. Yet behind that carefully maintained image lies a troubling contradiction — one that advocates and commentators are now calling out with growing urgency: while women are honoured in public, their bodies are being traded and exploited in private.

The Hypocrisy of Selective Respect

Across Sri Lankan society, mothers occupy a near-sacred position. They are praised from pulpits, celebrated on national occasions, and elevated in cultural discourse as symbols of sacrifice and virtue. But critics argue that this public veneration rings hollow when set against the lived reality of countless women and girls who are subjected to trafficking, sexual exploitation, and abuse — often at the hands of the very men who participate in those same rituals of reverence.

The contradiction is stark. A society cannot genuinely honour women while simultaneously allowing — or turning a blind eye to — systems and networks that commodify and exploit them behind closed doors.

Trafficking Remains a Persistent Crisis

Human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of women remain serious concerns in Sri Lanka. Vulnerable women, many from economically marginalised communities, are particularly at risk. The trade is frequently driven by men who occupy ordinary — sometimes even respectable — positions in society, making the problem all the more difficult to confront publicly.

Advocates have long argued that meaningful change requires more than awareness campaigns or seasonal recognition of women's contributions. It demands accountability, stronger law enforcement, and a fundamental shift in how Sri Lankan men and institutions view and treat women in everyday life.

Culture Must Match Conduct

The core message being raised is one of consistency. Respect for women cannot be selective — reserved for ceremonial moments while exploitation is quietly tolerated in private spaces. True respect manifests in legislation that is enforced, in communities that refuse to protect perpetrators, and in men who hold themselves and each other accountable.

A country that worships the image of the mother while men trade women's bodies in private is not honouring women — it is honouring an idea of them, while the real women suffer.

A Call for Genuine Social Change

For Sri Lanka to move beyond this contradiction, the conversation must shift from cultural celebration to cultural accountability. That means confronting uncomfortable truths about gender-based violence, demanding transparency from institutions, and ensuring that the protections afforded to women on paper are felt in practice — in homes, workplaces, and communities across the island.

The reverence Sri Lanka publicly professes for its women deserves to be matched, at last, by the reality those women actually live.