Women's magazine

[OKKAR66127@xxxxxxx]

Women's magazine
Perspectives, The NLM, Saturday, 21 March 1998

The Women's Chapter of the Myanmar Writers and Journalists Association met
yesterday to consider the possibility of launching a women's magazine.

The launch, if you may call it that, was immediate, with women well wishers
throwing K 10,000 chip-ins to ensure that what they had in mind would soon
become reality.

To give the launch the necessary push was U Myo Thant (Maung Hsu Shin), who
in his capacity as Chairman of the MWJA, had been instrumental in getting a
women's chapter established in order to focus more attention on women's
affairs.

This, of course, will not be the only women's magazine for there are other
magazines which publish articles about women by women.

In countries where there are no women's rights, there are organizations
clamouring for them, and there was a time for women's liberation movement,
or women's lib, which notably affirmed the introduction of the prefix Ms.
favouring married women to escape being Mrs. and subordinated by their
husbands.

That is quite different in Myanmar, where since time immemorial, women did
not need to seek emancipation and did not take their husbands' names as
suffixes.

Moreover, though women respect their husbands as is traditional, it is not
to the point of being subjugated.  Thus, we had at no time had any women's
group shouting for liberation or for their rights.

Women here have long enjoyed their rights as the better half, family
person, wife, mother and as homemaker.

There have been women judges, lawyers and administrators, among others.
There were the Thakinmagyis who were firebrands in the time of the 1300
(Myanmar Era) Revolution - 1938 - when they marched side by side with their
male counterparts and made their voices heard by colonialists we were out
to oust.

We had brilliant women writers and journalists who not only contributed to
well-being of their kind and society but also enriched the lives of others.

Women writers played a distinctive role in the freedom struggle and
continue to embellish their worthy position as patriotic daughters.



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