Forgotten Experiences of Up-country Tamil Women in Transitional Justice Kurian and Jayawardena (2014) question whether Up-country Tea plantation Tamil women workers are ‘Slaves of Slaves’. They discuss how patriarchal norms and practices were incorporated into the life and labour regime on the Sri Lankan plantations, and their implications for women workers. As they point out, plantation Tamil women workers are under the authority of men and the patriarchal system. The best example of this can be found in the structure of trade unions, since men head all the unions except the Red Flag Women’s Movement. Domestic violence persists in the plantation sector, as with the rest of the country. Shifani and Seelagama (2010) have found the causes for violence within the household to be alcoholism, patriarchal values, reliance on traditional gender roles, and gender-based division of labour. These causes and contributing factors for the domestic violence are similar to those among other communities (Deraniyagala 1992; Jayasundere 2009; Kodikara 2012). Impact of Ethnic Conflict on Up-country Tamils Uyangoda (1998) writing in the 1990s in the context of an ongoing war, states that there were restrictions on civil society organisations that work in the plantation and arbitrary arrests among the plantation community. Furthermore, the plantation people were not aware of their rights upon detention. Their lack of National Identity Cards was a major threat to their personal liberty and freedom of movement during the ethnic conflict, he notes. 57