Treading on the broken glass of the ceiling she has sought to break isn’t anything new for police officer Bimshani Jasin Arachchi. After all, going to court to right a wrong is something she has done even in the past.
Bimshani Jasin Arachchi joined the police force in 1997, three years after which she applied for the female Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) slot that had fallen vacant in the year 2000. What should have been granted to her, however, was not, despite her having passed the interviews and sat the exams. The reason? She was a few inches too short. She challenged this in the Supreme Court (SC) only to have to wait till 2016 for the SC to finally rule in her favour and promote her. Between 2016 and 2019, she rose from Inspector of Police (IP) to ASP to SP to Senior SP (SSP), and then last September, to the post of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG).
Her appointment to the post of DIG saw a shift in the narrative where the notion “the Police is not a suitable career path for women” was previously dominant. Suddenly, she had become a symbol of hope and merit, and a prime example of hard work and dedication paying off in a part of the world where the lives of most women tend to be coloured pink since birth, with dolls and limited career paths being saddled to their side. She had finally done it – she had climbed up a broken and rickety ladder, and mended the broken rungs for those still striving to reach the top. Suddenly, there was a top that they could climb to.
During her flourishing career journey, the reason her male counterparts did not find issue with previous promotions was because they had fallen within the female cadre, but this newest appointment did not. A male cadre slot had fallen vacant for the appointment of a new DIG, and Jasin Arachchi had been appointed to fill it.
This is when we saw the shattering not of a glass ceiling, but of the collective male ego of a group of SSPs.
A senior male SSP, along with 32 colleagues, signed this petition, believing the decision to be illegal. “This appointment has disregarded laws, causing serious and irreversible damage to the petitioners’ careers in the Police Department,” he said. Initial reports surfaced where we learned of the reasoning behind their challenge; the word “women” is not mentioned in the regulations pertaining to this position. The second reason these petitioners stated was that Acting DIG Jasin Arachchi falls behind the required height of 5’6’’.
In a country where voting rights were given to women in 1931, and in a country which also saw the world’s first woman Head of State being elected, the reasons stated to block the appointment of a position to a senior position within the police ranks truly baffles the mind. How is it that Asia’s first nation to grant women the right to vote has now regressed to a point where we need to squabble over whether or not the word “women” was or was not stated in the procedure needed to promote her?
If Margaret Thatcher could lead the UK as its “Iron Lady” while standing at a modest 5’5” in height, how difficult is it to understand that a woman’s height (or even for that matter a man’s) does not hinder their ability to make decisions or execute leadership skills? The senior SSP who petitioned stated that this appointment had caused “serious and irreversible damage to the petitioners’ careers” while failing to acknowledge that what he and 32 others are doing to Jasin Arachchi is no different. Not only are they attacking the capability of one of their own police force members, but are also calling into question Sri Lanka’s commitment towards achieving gender-based equality in the workplace. A thorough shame, on both counts. It just goes to show that height quite obviously does not determine intellect.
The National Forum Against Gender-based Violence gave their official statement on this matter by saying: “Article 12(2) of the Sri Lankan Constitution stipulates that ‘no citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, place of birth, or any one of such grounds’. We are of the opinion that cadre(s) of all state agencies and institutions, including the Police Department, should reflect the pluralistic nature of Sri Lanka, including gender. As such, the National Forum Against Gender-based Violence urges the relevant authorities to protect the fundamental rights of both men and women by providing equitable opportunities and inclusive space for females to enjoy their rights as employees in the world of work.”
In light of this very strong and timely statement, one is pushed to wonder whether to some members of society, fundamental rights only exist to protect their own self-interest. It is also most pertinent to mention that Sri Lanka has signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1991; upholding such a petition lies in clear violation of these human rights.
No woman has ever been promoted beyond the rank of SSP, states a report titled “Achieving Gender Equality in the Sri Lanka Police: An Analysis of Women Officers”, published in 2019, and this is not by accident. At the very core of its appointment process lies the festering issue of a sinister lack of equal opportunity within the Sri Lankan police system.
While recognising that the news over the past few days has focused solely on the case of Jasin Arachchi, it is also a very widespread and rampant issue within other workplaces as well: Sexism and gender discrimination within workplaces is nothing new. And if we are going to use legal loopholes and technicalities relating to regulation wording to change the fact that the fragility of our egos should also have been examined before we entered the workplace, that would have been a far more useful examination and test to undertake at the onset. Some men in the police force, it appears, would have failed.
(The writer is a lawyer and teacher based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She also currently writes for The Daily Times in Pakistan and can be found on twitter at @writergirl_11)Males policing the glass ceiling
11 May 2021
Males policing the glass ceiling
11 May 2021
Treading on the broken glass of the ceiling she has sought to break isn’t anything new for police officer Bimshani Jasin Arachchi. After all, going to court to right a wrong is something she has done even in the past.
Bimshani Jasin Arachchi joined the police force in 1997, three years after which she applied for the female Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) slot that had fallen vacant in the year 2000. What should have been granted to her, however, was not, despite her having passed the interviews and sat the exams. The reason? She was a few inches too short. She challenged this in the Supreme Court (SC) only to have to wait till 2016 for the SC to finally rule in her favour and promote her. Between 2016 and 2019, she rose from Inspector of Police (IP) to ASP to SP to Senior SP (SSP), and then last September, to the post of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG).
Her appointment to the post of DIG saw a shift in the narrative where the notion “the Police is not a suitable career path for women” was previously dominant. Suddenly, she had become a symbol of hope and merit, and a prime example of hard work and dedication paying off in a part of the world where the lives of most women tend to be coloured pink since birth, with dolls and limited career paths being saddled to their side. She had finally done it – she had climbed up a broken and rickety ladder, and mended the broken rungs for those still striving to reach the top. Suddenly, there was a top that they could climb to.
During her flourishing career journey, the reason her male counterparts did not find issue with previous promotions was because they had fallen within the female cadre, but this newest appointment did not. A male cadre slot had fallen vacant for the appointment of a new DIG, and Jasin Arachchi had been appointed to fill it.
This is when we saw the shattering not of a glass ceiling, but of the collective male ego of a group of SSPs.
A senior male SSP, along with 32 colleagues, signed this petition, believing the decision to be illegal. “This appointment has disregarded laws, causing serious and irreversible damage to the petitioners’ careers in the Police Department,” he said. Initial reports surfaced where we learned of the reasoning behind their challenge; the word “women” is not mentioned in the regulations pertaining to this position. The second reason these petitioners stated was that Acting DIG Jasin Arachchi falls behind the required height of 5’6’’.
In a country where voting rights were given to women in 1931, and in a country which also saw the world’s first woman Head of State being elected, the reasons stated to block the appointment of a position to a senior position within the police ranks truly baffles the mind. How is it that Asia’s first nation to grant women the right to vote has now regressed to a point where we need to squabble over whether or not the word “women” was or was not stated in the procedure needed to promote her?
If Margaret Thatcher could lead the UK as its “Iron Lady” while standing at a modest 5’5” in height, how difficult is it to understand that a woman’s height (or even for that matter a man’s) does not hinder their ability to make decisions or execute leadership skills? The senior SSP who petitioned stated that this appointment had caused “serious and irreversible damage to the petitioners’ careers” while failing to acknowledge that what he and 32 others are doing to Jasin Arachchi is no different. Not only are they attacking the capability of one of their own police force members, but are also calling into question Sri Lanka’s commitment towards achieving gender-based equality in the workplace. A thorough shame, on both counts. It just goes to show that height quite obviously does not determine intellect.
The National Forum Against Gender-based Violence gave their official statement on this matter by saying: “Article 12(2) of the Sri Lankan Constitution stipulates that ‘no citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, place of birth, or any one of such grounds’. We are of the opinion that cadre(s) of all state agencies and institutions, including the Police Department, should reflect the pluralistic nature of Sri Lanka, including gender. As such, the National Forum Against Gender-based Violence urges the relevant authorities to protect the fundamental rights of both men and women by providing equitable opportunities and inclusive space for females to enjoy their rights as employees in the world of work.”
In light of this very strong and timely statement, one is pushed to wonder whether to some members of society, fundamental rights only exist to protect their own self-interest. It is also most pertinent to mention that Sri Lanka has signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1991; upholding such a petition lies in clear violation of these human rights.
No woman has ever been promoted beyond the rank of SSP, states a report titled “Achieving Gender Equality in the Sri Lanka Police: An Analysis of Women Officers”, published in 2019, and this is not by accident. At the very core of its appointment process lies the festering issue of a sinister lack of equal opportunity within the Sri Lankan police system.
While recognising that the news over the past few days has focused solely on the case of Jasin Arachchi, it is also a very widespread and rampant issue within other workplaces as well: Sexism and gender discrimination within workplaces is nothing new. And if we are going to use legal loopholes and technicalities relating to regulation wording to change the fact that the fragility of our egos should also have been examined before we entered the workplace, that would have been a far more useful examination and test to undertake at the onset. Some men in the police force, it appears, would have failed.
(The writer is a lawyer and teacher based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She also currently writes for The Daily Times in Pakistan and can be found on twitter at @writergirl_11)