Women and Politics in Burma/Myanmar

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Websites/Multiple Documents

Title: A fresh evaluation of the Burmese narrative through the female perspective: Interview with Nilanjana Sengupta
Description: "The Female Voice of Myanmar: Khin Myo Chit to Aung San Suu Kyi by Nilanjana Sengupta (Cambridge University Press, India) is a scholarly treatise on Myanmar. The book will be released in late September in Singapore. Sengupta is a Visiting Scholar at Asia Research Institute (National University of Singapore).There aren?t many Indian writers who write on Myanmar, so this is an important work of scholarship. The publisher describes the book as a ?commentary on the evolving state of Myanmar and female thought from colonial times to the present, seen through the eyes of four Burmese female activist-writers?..."
Creator/author: Zafar Anjum
Source/publisher: Kitaab
Date of publication: 2015-08-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-05-15
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Individual Documents

Title: There can be no real accountability in Myanmar if women remain on the sidelines
Description: "For decades, ethnic women in Myanmar have documented acts of sexual violence committed against them in the hopes that, one day, perpetrators will be held accountable for their crimes. They had reasons for hope as recently as five years ago, when the government of Myanmar endorsed the international Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict and Aung Sung Suu Kyi was elected the first woman leader of the country in a historic victory. Today, violent conflict between military and ethnic groups remains as intense as ever, while wartime sexual and gender-based violence continues unabated and unpunished. The direct and later indirect rule by the military since 1962 has had a long-term effect on the lives of women in Myanmar. They expected their fundamental rights to be restored under the new quasi-civilian arm of government, led by Suu Kyi. Instead, the web of military presence and business interests in ethnic areas of the country continue to devastate ethnic women. In August, the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar released a report documenting cases of gang rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual abuse in heavily-militarized areas in several states: Shan, Kachin, and Rakhine. Investigators found that sexual violence has become a regular tactic used against civilians by the Tatmadaw, the official name of the country’s armed forces..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Women's Media Center" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-11-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: What Advice Do Myanmar’s Female MPs Have for Women Candidates in 2020?
Topic: Women's Political Participation
Topic: Women's Political Participation
Description: "As Myanmar’s historic reform process continues to evolve, more women are needed in leadership roles of all kinds, including in parliaments. Despite their low numbers, the positive contributions of women MPs in both national and subnational parliaments have already earned the recognition of their constituents. With general elections approaching in 2020, it is time to ask if Myanmar’s political parties will nominate more women, and if so, will they be elected. Though candidate selection very much depends on decisions by party leaders, the good news is that female candidates will not have to make this journey alone. Myanmar now has a small corps of veteran female MPs who can give constructive guidance to women running for office. In early September 2019, The Asia Foundation and a local partner organization, Phan Tee Eain, convened the fourth nationwide Women MPs Forum in Nay Pyi Taw, with 58 women parliamentarians. These included nine MPs from the two houses of the national parliament, the Amyotha Hluttaw and Pyithu Hluttaw, and 49 MPs from parliaments in Kachin and Shan States and the regions of Yangon, Mandalay, Magwe, Sagaing, and Ayeyarwady. The forum was an opportunity to consider strategies to support female candidates in 2020. One key strategy that emerged from the discussions was to share their own experiences as woman MPs, so that female candidates will know what to expect and how to exploit their own unique strengths to win public office..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Asia Foundation" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-10-23
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar conflict: civilians caught in battle in north
Description: "More than 2,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Myanmar's northern Shan state, as the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic Palaung armed group and the Myanmar army staged tit-for-tat attacks. That's despite unilateral ceasefire announcements by both sides in the past two months. And civilians caught in the middle of that fighting are bearing the brunt..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2019-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Women Writing about Burma/Myanmar
Description: "At a Myanmar studies workshop late last year, I eye through the papers we are to comment on and notice the absence of women from the bibliographies I read. When I question this, the response is first a bored kind of silence before one of the participants explains, patiently, that everyone writing extensively on these topics is already included. When I object, and offer to share names of women writing on this topic, someone else, probably thinking that he is supportive, smiles and says, sure, for the sake of political correctness. Send the list on. I try to make an argument for the importance of including other perspectives, try to emphasise that which gets lost when we take knowledge for granted and assume one type of knowledge is necessarily the same as—or an acceptable stand-in for—another. I see someone yawn. When the papers come out I notice – again – the absence of women from the bibliographies. The references I sent on were never used. Why does this matter? Why is this, the absence of certain voices, so troubling? Let me tell you a secret. It is NOT about political correctness. If anything, it is scholarly laziness, which I am as guilty of as anyone else. I am aware of how easy it is to use reliable, and therefore repetitive, citation practices, rather than making the effort to look for new studies on the topic I am interested in. Researching new work – whether actually new or just new to me – takes time. I easily fall back on old patterns, well-threaded research paths..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "TEACIRCLEOXFORD"
Date of publication: 2019-09-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Together for Peace, Equality for All: Women’s League of Burma Celebrates 19-Years
Description: ''On December 9, 2018 the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), an umbrella organization comprised of 13-member groups, celebrated nineteen years of activism for women. Over 500 people joined the ceremony for the anniversary, which was held at Inya Lake Hotel, Yangon, to pay tribute to generations of reformers and to commemorate the events that happened since December 1999, when the second forum of the Women’s Organization of Burma was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The goal of this summit was to encourage a dialogue that would maintain the spirit of the Pang Long Agreement – an understanding reached in 1947 which sought to make Burma a Union of equal and independent states but was never implemented. The women in attendance at the summit further explored their ideas and views on how to overcome long-ingrained gender stereotypes they believed were holding the country back from progress. A platform was needed to give women of different ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds a voice. Thus, the Women’s League of Burma was established...''
Creator/author: Nang Kham Awn, Maggi Quadrini
Date of publication: 2019-01-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: The Third Women' Seminar Statement
Description: "The women discussed issues for two days and decided to form the new Grassroots Women’s Network. At the conclusion of the seminar the attendees jointly endorsed the following resolutions: We call on the Burma Army to stop their military operations in all ethnic areas. We want the 2008 constitution to be abolished and call on the Burma Government to begin a process whereby a genuine federal constitution can be drawn up. We also call on all stakeholders to stop mega development projects in all ethnic areas until there is genuine peace and a political settlement. There must be no forced repatriation of refugees. We also call on the international community and donors to continue to support humanitarian aid to refugees and IDPs according to international standards until peace is restored in the country..."
Creator/author: The Karen Women’s Organisation
Source/publisher: Karen Women's Organisation
Date of publication: 2018-03-30
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Sgaw Karen, Burmese ျမန္မာဘာသာ, English
Format : pdf
Size: 336.17 KB
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Title: Gender Mainstreaming in Subnational Governance: Myanmar?s Fisheries and Livestock Sectors
Description: "In Myanmar, there is a general attitude that issues affecting women fall exclusively under the purview of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief, and Resettlement. This policy paper explores how gender mainstreaming in subnational governance can take place outside of what is typically considered women-centric policy domains in Myanmar, using the fisheries and livestock sectors as examples...Since 2011, Myanmar has begun implementing significant governance reforms. The 2008 Constitution provided a framework for the beginning of decentralization, shifting from a highly centralized and authoritarian system to one that more closely resembles a democracy. The formation of State and Region (S/R) governments, Myanmar?s newly established subnational governing bodies, has created opportunities for legislation, policies, and budgets that are more responsive and representative of local needs. While the introduction of subnational institutions has indeed laid the foundations for increasingly democratic practices, the road towards gender equality continues to face significant challenges under Myanmar?s current governance structure. These challenges include: zz A complex administrative structure that neglects to clearly define roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships;1 zz A general attitude that issues affecting women fall exclusively under the purview of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief, and Resettlement; and zz Outdated governance systems that pose barriers to equitable participation..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation
Date of publication: 2018-08-15
Date of entry/update: 2018-08-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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