Myanmar women fighting against the military regime

A look into the particular role of women in the resistance to the brutal military regime in Myanmar. Produced by Ruolan Ma, it follows on the podcast episode and article she did last year on the country and the role of journalists there. 

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Transcript

Myanmar women fighting against the military regime

Derek MacCuish:

In Myanmar, the military dictatorship spends more than a quarter of its annual budget on its military, mainly to suppress its people. As this podcast was being prepared, the military bombed yet another village, killing more than 150 people.  

The military coup in 2021 came after ten years of relative freedom and democracy, and people are not willing to continue under the brutality of the military leaders. 

This episode of Human Rights Magazine looks into the particular role of women in the resistance to the brutal military regime. Produced by Ruolan Ma, it follows on the podcast episode and article she did last year on the country and the role of journalists there. I encourage you to check them both out.

(Rough AI transcription)

Ruolan Ma: Data show that women are underrepresented at all levels of decision-making worldwide. And that achieving gender parity in political life is far off. However, this is being challenged, even in Myanmar, the country that is experiencing a repressive military regime. Female activists from all walks of life are at the forefront of advocating for democracy, despite the risk of being arrested or even killed by the military. 

To learn about their stories, I spoke to four female activists with backgrounds from Myanmar. 

The first guest I talked to was a student activist who wishes to be called Evelyn for privacy reasons Her activity has included supporting the teachers in a college we're on CDM, which is short for civil disobedience movement and confronted the school had mastered to Joyce CDM. Issue statements in support of cbo servants to stay on CDM and condemning the educational authorities’ actions against people who are participating in CDMs 

She also participated in her home. Thomas anti-military dictatorship protest for providing logistics support the protestors and those are CDM. 

Evelyn: I'm a university student at the time. and I'm attending my first year, first semester. And due to the COVID 19, our university closes and we end up currently attending the university. . So once the coup happened our universities are still closing, but I am alumni of our student union.

I know that in Canada, all of the students are member of student union, but in Myanmar not like that. So we make a group and then we collect the members of student unions, and I'm also one of the student representatives of my major. 

As soon as the coup happened we had waited 72 hours, so after 72 hours we started to protest on the road, and then we just shout and we just hold the sign boards and we express our feelings that we against the ministry coop.

But you know, in Napk, one girl died after had that the people became more intense, and I think from that time on C R P H was formed. And then our elected government of 2022, they organized NUG. And then according to what they said, they said to stop the military without the gangs or other things we should involve in.

So from the time on, I also involved in CDM and then as I'm a student representative, I attend a meeting with my seniors and other student representative of the other major. And then we collect the data like and we ask. Students and we persuade them to involve in the CDM movement.

So like 97% of the students of my whole university involved in CDM. But for teachers, our head mistress she attended one of the meeting of military. So we contacted her and we asked her why you attend the meeting of the military?

Because one of the student of my university have also died at the time, and some of my friends and seniors are in the jail, why are you still attending the meeting? And she said that when they want me to attend the meeting, I had to go to the meeting and attend them.

It's nonsense. So we contacted our teachers and tell that teachers please involve in CDM movement. So from that time on, I am also joining an organization. Family, students around the world. So with their hub, I requested them to donate to our CDM teachers.

And by collecting the data, 73% of our teachers were involved in at the time, but not including our head administrative 

 I requested a donation money from my foreign friends. And then other NDM teachers also know that I'm the donors, so I cannot live in anymore, so I had to move my hometown but I'm still contact with my student union. I donate that many with you know, I create different bank accounts. I donate. At the time, I think it's by the end of March. So produces are not that much free in my country. Soldiers are killing and they are shooting the people who protest on the road. But our students and my seniors just not want to stop our protest.

So I need to contact with their student union. And then if all my classmates like, okay, we will have a secret protest at dawn 5:00 AM So who wanna participate and the location will be this and this. Do you wanna drive? And we are still protesting at that time

 One, there is no more protest on the road. With the hub of some organizations. I had contact with people who were training for like PDF in the forest.

I had contact with those people in the forest and my auntie also became one of the, I do like donations secretly to these people and I had contact with them.

 In the protest, one of my best friend's boyfriend, he died, he was also my friend. So at the time I feel really suffer, he is the same age of me, and then he died and I feel really, Sorry about him. And then I, I decided a lot, like I, I will do whatever I can to protest, but at the time I know that my parents will not allow me to go to the forest maybe because of my age. I'm not that mature, 

Ruolan Ma: I believe told me that her motivation comes from her friend who tragically died from a protest. Her childhood experience of being treated unfairly at school and her strong interest in politics. 

Evelyn: So the first one is my friend from high school, he died. The second one is my senior from my university. She died and other things are like the other young guys, they of my same age they also died. and another motivation is like, since the coup happened, I'm ready to protest because since my childhood, I was also interested in political issues.

And you know, Since our childhood, we had to face that we don't get equality because some children their parents are soldiers and then the teacher favor them. For some cases, although I won the prize, teachers don't give us, they just give a award to these.

There are so many things like this. We don't get equality. That's what I know. And then since I was, I think around six years old, I watched the movie, the Lady, and then Back to Young, like, like this, these movies. So these are really motivating movies and it's all about do Sanchi, our state councilor.

 And my grandfather, my, parents are in interested in like, politics. So since I was young, whenever we have dinner, my grandfather used to tell me about the political things. That's why I'm interested. But as politics is so complex one, I inform my.

Father I was also a member of student union. He was worried because you know, that 1988 uprising and the other uprisings, most of the uprisings in mima are studied by student union. That's why he knows that if something about some political issues happen in Myanmar I'll also be like the one who protest.

Ruolan Ma: I believe also has a female role model. We're not only motivated her but also make her friends from other countries admire me and more people's bravery in fighting against the military dictatorship

Evelyn: She was the greatest woman of 2022. She is also a minister of a Political party of Myanmar.

She's like my brothers crash she's so young, but she started a protest in Yengo. Not only her, the other female activists women's empowerment are also great in the product.

 So females involvement is very important and can persuade the other people. So what I mean is like when I met with Indonesian friend who is also studying politic at Oxford University and he is really interested in Myanmar.

I asked him Why you interested? And then he said that there is a winner of Miss Universe Mima, she's the beauty queen of Myanmar, and then she is now also holding the can and then staying in the forest, she is also protesting against military, and he said that, I heard that people will, I guess, protest. , a ministry could happen, but in your country, the beauty queen is protesting.

It's so interesting why the beauty queen sacrifice her life, our success for the other kids so the beauty queens and then some actresses, they sacrifice and they really against. The military for me what, who inspire me is like her women then she lived in Canada 10 years, be because of her mother's health.

She go back to Myanmar and at the time the Cubs happened. And now I think she had been arrested for nearly two years. So she just released less last month. What I mean is like not only men. Women had to sacrifice a lot. Women who have like big success and who are so beautiful they sacrifice their lives for democracy.

 It's very hard for them to live in their forest and to attend the training. So why you guys are waiting here? Why you guys are not evolving? So the other person tried their best and because of this woman?

Oh yeah. Women are involved in why? Why we don't. Why we are not. So they involve a.

Ruolan Ma: Next. I talked to Karima Jaffer, a master of social work student at the university of Toronto. She has done many works, promoting the culture of Myanmar, where she explored the role of gender and ethnicity, a Myanmar and international politics under a unique list of a Burmese descent who grew up in  Canada. 

Karima Jaffer: I was born and raised here. I'm a mixed Burmese woman. My dad comes from Burmese descent from his mother's side. And like we lost a lot of the culture after the many times colonization came to, I guess like disperse our family and Basically after years of doing research on my end to find out more about my life and who I am overall 

 I would speak to Bernie's relatives who are intact with the military coop. I've been doing a lot of advocacy in terms of having conversations, even in terms of speaking to professors at my faculty to see how they organize in a ethical manner and how to also, get the word across.

 I was also Someone who took part in creating the U of T like Myanmar Alliance group. And right now I'm external relations. And that means to create partnerships with, the student group, but also in terms of figuring out who would be potential.

Community partners so they won't be able to get the word across anymore because a lot of people dunno what Myanmar is so I guess it goes back to the first step of educating 

so that's what we're trying to do in the process.

My motivation is it goes back to my grandmother. and my grandmother was very proud of her Burmese roots and she lost her family at a very young age. And being able to be, raised by her in such a way where it was not just fluid spiritually and culturally, but also ] being able to have Like a warmth.

I feel like that's motivating me because when you look at what's going on right now in the country and what the commander in chief is doing of the military, and it's, it's when you're seeing what's happening to the country where mothers are being taken away from their kids and.

There's so much, drastic stuff that is happening in terms of human rights. And for me, I do see myself going to Burma and working, working there and in a international development standpoint. But my motivation is also because like, so much stuff has happened because of I guess All this colonial activities in terms of imperialism.

And what I really wanna do is be able to make Burma like sort of safe space again, whether it's over there or whether it's people who are coming here as refugees and how we can make it better tomorrow for them. Burma known for in the past they had really high literacy.

 They were known for having good education. And there the country is also known to be very kind and loving towards like folks, especially their guests. And seeing a guest, those ethics and values being tarnished away. Seeing what's going on in the country too right now and you know, using Buddhism as a way to team up and suppress human rights and attack ethnic minorities. And, it just makes you question overall in terms of, the regimes like security forces and how many people have killed since the coop.

 And it's just very disappointing that , it's taking that toxic masculine approach it's just really sad to see that Fear culture, fear growing too.

And bur must not like that. Myanmar is more than that. It's known for its beautiful culture. It's known for its beautiful language why are we going backwards when we're supposed pursue go force? Like, what happened to hope?

For instance , the military is knocking on people's door trying to convince women to leave their houses and follow 'em, you know? And there was this one documentary, it's called The Nemar Diaries, which does a really good job highlighting that.

And there's a scene where. , this little boy is just like to, to a little boy identifying from what I saw, like was talking to the military and, and he kept begging me. He's just like, don't take my mom away from me. I'm a child, don't do that. 

 There's an Instagram page too, usually it's like men, their voices in the background and they're filming women and they're like, yeah, we're gonna rape these women now. We're gonna kill this woman now. And they're posting it on social media. You know, alert people about, about what's what they're doing.

And it just makes me wonder, what's the difference between Taliban terrorism and what's the difference between imperialism and Burma and you know, seeing this male activist, also played many roles. It just makes you wonder why men, you know, why is it always around them?

Why? Why are they the ones who are often heard? And why is it so difficult for woman to also play roles and this kind of work. Like there, there, if you look at, he watched me in diaries. There was this one woman and she was like literally standing in the middle of the streets and she's screaming to the military, and mind you, the military as people.

I think with people like 17 years old, you know, and she started screaming like, , you're like the age of my children. You're like my children and I'm seeing you do this. We're all Buddhist, we're all from the same culture. Why is this happening? And it was really disappointing to see that too.

And even when it comes to like peace and security overall, men are seem to be the actress to protect. Men are seem to provide. And men, artists need to prevent violence. When, when that's the opposite. That's been happening. And when you look at the increasing, like global awareness gender is an important construct to understand conflict and looking for peace and how to implement this too.

And yeah, just because like. the past, leader of Irma was a woman, doesn't mean that she didn't have toxic masculinity. That's something that's been spread through generations. And the thing is, because of military coop , I don't think , the role of women are being strengthened, but it's been taken away and it's increasing the impact of.

Not just on the lives of women and girls and their kids, , but at the same time just being able to, understand the social expectations on boys in Burma now that like military Cooper are appearing at their doors and taking away their moms or sisters or whatever, and it's just how are they gonna take the next step?

 These are like little kids who are being abandoned and it's , what is it gonna do to them? What is it gonna do to their growth? What is it gonna do to their psych? It's like what is it gonna do to their ethics? Who are the role models? And that's something that lacks and where that stems from in terms of taking a more intersectional approach.

Ruolan Ma: Jaffer believes that stereotypes based on gender and ethnicity. Uh, perpetuated in politics. But she is determined to advocate for people like her in a freer political environment in Canada. 

Karima Jaffer: If you look at Burmese women, they've always been pretty timid, and that goes back to gender norms, but also the culture that's been set out in Verma in terms of not just Buddhism, but also like centuries, in terms of like how women are been depicted.

But my first time seeing an actual female activist was , a few months ago at the book launch at UT's monk School. And even though she was there, she wrote the book, the two white men who were with her, basically took over. .

And of course, her coming from her Burmese, humble roots. She didn't really speak. But the thing is again, it gave the power away to those white men, it's just a very big anti-colonial struggle overall. Like for me, when it comes to the Western world and seeing Burmese folks, I, to be honest, didn't even know that so many Burmese people existed in Ontario until like a few months ago, when I was doing my research and even the woman that I met, they were very quiet.

Vary to themselves and , it's just another clear reflection. In Burma it's more about survival. And over here it's more about choice. But at the same time, the aspect of shame and guilt plays such a big role. And it's difficult for women to influence authority as men usually do. And goes back to I guess like governmental bureaucracy. But at the same time, I just feel like women need to be more empowered.

 my challenge is that people should start creating space for brand, these women and being able to encourage them and finding ways to be strategic in terms of how to get them to be included and things like this. But at the same time, see like women leaders, I see women journalists to also be able to use the entire not just democracy impact, but also how it plays a big role within the symbolism of Indo-Pacific regions. Burma is such a diverse community. It has so many different, ethnicities and so many different cultures. , how are we able to create that solidarity so that not just women of Burma are being recognized towards a courage, but also how we can fight for them and in ways that's not just safe for us and safe for them, but also.

Effectively getting the word across, whether it's through social media, or these events at the same time, how are we able to create a more pluralistic society?

I think one thing is the fact that I'm mixed race I have different privileges, like being here too in Canada. You're so privileged in so many ways that you don't even see the different types of suffering that are existing.

 That just came up to me in terms of like my experiences are different than people who are pure Burmese my dad came here in the 1970s and he basically told me, you're a Canadian. You have to speak to your mind. You have to be honest.

 You have rights, and I just think that it was very powerful to have a dad who did that for me. And I hope that, one day I'm able to honor my dad in a way where we're also honoring my grandma and my ancestors too, so that we're able to make it easier place to live for people who can't seem to have that.

Ruolan Ma: The third guest we have is Han Lay a Burmese beauty pageant title holder and pro democracy activist. 

Han Lay: First of all, I would like to tell about my beauty pageant competition. So in my beauty pageant competition, the motive of my competition is stop the worst in violence.

So at that moment, my country situation is like happening military coop and everything, like they want to control the country. So I don't want to accept it. So I use my platform to start to talk about. Myanmar situation. At the moment, I don't really think about,  I became an abido step. You know, I, I just wanna tell about to the international, trying to make then Fumar case and the I trying to find out the media attention for my country.

So I start to do those kind of thing, and the military knows that I can do more so they're trying to put the wearing list on me and yeah, until now they're want me to get back to Myanmar. 

Ruolan Ma: When a public figure talks about politics, it often invites comments and skepticism. However Holly never cares about other people's judgements.

Han Lay: So I don't really care about the comment and stuff because you know, the thing that I do, I know what I want and the things I do are really needed for my country and my people.

I don't ask for the power or something. I'm doing the right thing, like right for it near my people, the human right and the democracy, those kind of thing, right? So the military cannot control me, and that's why they put me a penalty, like that sentence in Myanmar. That's why I cannot even go back to Myan.

Ruolan Ma: Growing up in the apolitical environment in Asia. Holly's advocacy and politics started only two years ago after the military coupe.

Han Lay: So as you know in Asia, like talking about politics, it's not really popular, especially in the yen generation.

The people don't talk about politics and stuff, right? So I also don't know about any political stuff. even what is happening in Myanmar before too. So my family and my parents, they don't really share about to me about the politics. So after the military cope, I start to wonder what is really happening in Myanmar and what is like military controlling people for what kind of reasons?

Something like that. So I set to realize our country, it's. Control by military so many years before. So I start to feel like, okay, I'm the new generation and I'm the beauty queen. I'm the spokesperson so I can do something for my country and using my platform effectively. Right? So like two weeks after the military cope, I was thinking, no, I will not go to the beauty pageant anymore.

My country is like Japanese. So like horrible things and so many people die. Why should I represent Myanmar at this moment? After that, I realized, no, I'm the spokesperson. Even though I cannot change anything, I can spread out the message to international community and ask for the help to help to Myanmar people.

So, that kind of motivation I got and I decided to compete the competition. So I fly to Thailand and when I arrived to Thailand, I start to contact so many media and trying to ask do you know about Myanmar situation? At that moment, they don't really know. They have no idea because the military block all the information in and they even block the airport, they even cut out the internet connection and everything. So the message cannot reach. So I trying to think like, okay, I can do something for them. So I connect with my friends from Myanmar, they give me like a few information, like update information every day. So I start to use and posting from my Instagram platform and people start to interest about what is happening in your country.

Ruolan Ma: contrary to many people's assumption. Han Lay's motivation for having a career as a beauty queen is much more than getting approval for her physical appearance. 

Han Lay: So since I was young, I really want to be a spokesperson. I don't like women stay at home, like take care of the house, cooking for head spend. That's, that's not the thing that I like.

So I always wanted to be like spokeperson always wanted to share the awareness for the woman. That's why I became Beauty Green. So like the platform that, the way that I do is very much for me. So I decided to talk about politics. 

 My project for the Beauty Pageant competition is stop the worst of violin, right? So I go to like so many refugee area in Yamar trying. Help them. Like donated money. That was my project before, but my project was changed because of the military coop. 

Ruolan Ma: Highly also taught me that there are many people in the entertainment industry who have devoted themselves to the political activism. 

Han Lay: so many like artists, like other actress and the singer are in United States and Australia. Like I'm the only one who is living in Canada. So most of my friends, they stay doing like fundraising events and they're trying to motivate people about to support Summar every single day.

They keep doing that, like me as well in other country. But in Canada, I'm the only one person I meet, like social influencer. I'm the only one, so I have to do so many events by myself alone. For one Beauty Queen, the same events she is Ms. Grant, I think 2030, I'm not sure the, the year she drawing the force in the forest and trying to against the military and she's staying like in the jungle now and she facings so much difficulty. I her that I'm really sorry for her actually. 

Ruolan Ma: Handily also caught for help from other countries since without the help from the international community. It is still hard to end the military rule in EMR. 

Han Lay: The international community can help tomar because we cannot fight alone.

We don't have work plans, we don't have many, the young generation live in the jungle to fight a huge military. So of course we need the international help. So that's why I was so happy, like, Three weeks or four weeks ago, the US give the supports to Myanmar. So I was thinking about why Canada don't give any supports to Myanmar

So I really want to tell the Canada government to support Myanmar people as well. That's what me, and other people, we have a group and we trying to pressure the government to support more people who living in the chanco and support the medical staff and other things like that.

Ruolan Ma: The last interviewee I spoke to was a professor teaching political science at a university in north America. For personal reasons. She asked not to review her name and other personal information. Out of respect to her request i would refer her as the professor for the rest of the interview

I started our conversation by asking how severe is gender inequality in Myanmar and how does it worsen women's situation during the coop? The professor answered. 

I think it depends on which areas and ethnic groups you were looking at. We met from urban areas and higher socioeconomic classes tend to enjoy more privileges then their counterparts in rural areas. Overall, however, there hasn't been official discrimination against women in CBO service and higher education. 

For instance, women need to have higher scores than men in order to get into medical and engineering school because they perform better in school. There still is a small percentage of women in top level government positions that along the military and elected positions. 

Women tend to dominate a university teaching positions. Although we did not have statistics, women suffered gender based violence and discrimination at home and at work. In terms of salary and promotion. And do disproportionate share of houseworks. The coop affects all gender across different places, but it affects men and women differently. 

Y'all men are more likely to constitute a disproportionate share of people killed by the military and more likely to join the resistance movement. Since the coup more women went outside of the home to run an errand and engaging income generating activities. Uh, including going overseas to work as housemates, because it has become riskier for men to go out. 

Men are more likely to be questioned, searched and treated harshly by security forces. There has been an increasing number of female headed households because men join the resistance movements or are being killed. 

The next topic we discussed was the rising wave of female activism advocating for the end of military rule . And the establishment of democracy. 

It is not expected to have female figures in the political arena and in Asian culture. So I asked the professor, how do you think the female activists break free from the stereotype and what impact could they make? She asked her the following. . There were already many prominent Ouimet figures in politics, higher education, business, and NGOs. The percentage of women who are in elected positions is too small, but memoir women, activists has historically enjoyed 

a high level of independence and they can be as fierce and resourceful as their male counterparts. Women may have deliberately avoided politics for various reasons, but they do well in the CSOM and NGOs world. They're not afraid to dominate the conversation. I think 80% of my local researchers now are women. They're extremely brave perceptive, engaging and outgoing. 

Ellis. Also curious to know if there are a lot of female academics from Myanmar, what kind of contribution women academics are making to contribute to the country's cost of democracy? The professor told me, yes, there are a lot of female academics in Myanmar and they do occupy high-ranking positions. 

Many of them have engaged in civil disobedience. Movement. 

Education and healthcare sectors are the two sectors that see a high rate of CBO disobedient movement against the coop. The field left the country or joined the resistance movement in the border areas, but most resigned from their positions and are quietly leaving inside the country. 

Next drawing from 

My experience and background as a political science graduate, I am often bothered by your ecentric theories. I learned in class. I wondered if the professor has encountered the same problem . In her study and teaching. 

And how did she deal with them? She said yes, most theories in social sciences are either Europe or an American centric. But we, as academics have an opportunity to question challenge and present alternative ideas in our published works. There have been a growing number of native as well as Western scholars who propose new theories that capture reality on the ground. 

I try to incorporate them into my syllabus. As you know, there have been a growing number of feminist scholars from Asia who questioned Western feminists, who claimed to represent the voices of feminists from third world countries. Lastly, I asked the professor, if her background motivates her to pursue a career in political science. And what does she eventually want to achieve with her knowledge and professionalism in this area? 

She answered, Yes, definitely. 

My research areas, mainly focus on political economy and ethnic politics. The two challenges that have faced Burma since again, independence from great Britain. In addition to teaching and research, I would like to spend more time on the ground, helping with humanitarian assistance, sustainable development and policy engagement.