Sharmila Seyyid is a writer, social activist, and fearless critic of the injustices in society. Sharmila is from Eravur, in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province. She has been working as a journalist and a writer since 2001, and as an activist for women in the Batticaloa District since 2006. In 2009, she founded the Organization for Social Development, a community-based organization in Eravur. She has been working closely with the minority women in Sri Lanka for the last several years, following the war.

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Sharmila Seyyid has received international recognition for her dedication to addressing the socioeconomic vulnerability of women in Sri Lankan society through writing and activism. Her works center on the multiple burdens that Tamil-speaking Muslim women in Sri Lanka face, especially in the wake of the long Sri Lankan civil war. She also established Mantra Life, an organization seeking to lessen the gender gap in Sri Lanka’s economic, political, and social spheres by helping women become financially independent.

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In 2014, Seyyid was awarded the "Inspirational Women" by Women in Management in Sri Lanka and was recognized for her ongoing literary achievements when “Siragu Mulaitha Pen” (poetry collection) won the Tamiliyal Award from the Writers Motivation Center in 2013 and Tamil Progressive Writers and Artists Association, Tamil Nadu, India in 2014.

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Seyyid has published 9 books; fiction (1), nonfiction (2), poetry (2), stories (1), and volumes of articles (3), and her work has received awards including "Best Novel of the Year" for Ummath by the Tamil Progressive Writers and Artists Association in India 2014. Ummath is available in English from HarperCollins. Two of her latest works will soon be published in English as well.

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She was forced into exile when she was barely 30 years old because of her work. Seyyid was in and out of exile in countries like India, Thailand, and Nepal. She was awarded a prestigious IIE-Artist Protection Fund Fellowship (IIE-APF) and placed in residence with UNO’s Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights (GCHR) and UNO’s Sam and Frances Fried Holocaust and Genocide Academy.

 

At UNO, Seyyid will be working with the Goldstein Center for Human Rights program while continuing her writing and international social justice work.

 

Sharmila Seyyid lives with her spouse and two children in Omaha.