Women

Burmese Women's Situation

Many international human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have written reports documenting the Burmese junta's human rights violations aimed at women, and their neglect of the specific needs of women. However, the standard response to these problems by the regime is to deny their existence. The junta claims that women are entirely equal with men in Burmese society, a claim contrary to the experience of most women in Burma. The first step in eliminating discrimination against women is acknowledging that such discrimination exists. Until the regime recognises that traditional stereotypes, institutions, policies and practices keep women in Burma below men, the situation of women will not improve.

Military

The situation of women in Burma must be understood within the context of a highly militarised society, as women's roles and lives are shaped by the dominance of the military. Membership in the military is exclusively male, and the military controls every aspect of life in Burma: political, economic, civil, social and cultural. The ruling regime is an all-male military junta, blocking women from all positions of power in the country's most important institutions. The army is the holder of political power, the largest and wealthiest employer and the owner of all major businesses in Burma.

Gender Stereotypes

Traditional gender stereotypes enforcing women's exclusive gender role as caretakers and servants to men will not change as long as Burmese society is dominated by military culture. The junta controls the media and uses it to present an image of the military as part of a long, honourable tradition of protecting the Burmese people and preserving the Burmese country. Despite the many documented human rights abuses committed by members of the army, this sense of respect for the military still persists to some degree. As long as the military regime rules in Burma, the stereotype will continue that men are the powerful fighters and protectors, and women the weak protected.

Politics

Burmese women who express political opinions or engage in political activity have been harassed, arrested and incarcerated. Furthermore, women who were elected to political office in the 1990 elections the junta did not recognise continue to experience these human rights violations. They are often convicted without due process and sentenced to inconsistent prison terms. Once imprisoned, many women suffer rape and other sexual assault. In many cases, women simply disappear as their location, term of sentence and conditions of confinement remain unknown.

Lack of Women's Organisations

No government body or committee specifically dedicated to achieving gender equality exists in Burma, nor are any independent women's organisations permitted to form or conduct research into Burmese women's issues. The existing Myanmar National Committee for Women's Affairs, Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association and the Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs Association have promoted national patriotic values rather than the empowerment of women. They are made up largely of high-ranking military officers and of some women who are married or related to them. It is widely known in Burma that these organisations have no independent authority or expertise in establishing equality for women. These programs are afflicted by the same difficulties as other institutions in Burma: corruption and a lack of funding, training and freedom of information.

Civil War

The consequences of civil war between the military and ethnic minority groups in rural regions are dire for women. In many ethnic communities, the men leave their villages to fight, leaving the women, children and elderly behind to fend for themselves. Women become solely responsible for gathering wood, preparing food, caring for the sick and elderly, maintaining the home and keeping the family together in the case of forced relocation.

Forced Relocation

The army undertakes forced relocation in ethnic areas for a variety of military, political and economic reasons: to gain control over ethnic minority groups and destroy their communities, to clear the way for infrastructure projects and to enforce its "Four Cuts" policy of eliminating sources of food, arms, intelligence and recruits between civilian communities and ethnic opposition groups. Forced relocation resulting from such land confiscation and extortion affects all members of the community; however, it hits women particularly hard, as they are generally responsible for the care and feeding of their families and must fulfil this role under difficult conditions. Women must endure extreme poverty when removed from their homes and only means of secure food production. In an effort to remain close to their food sources, many women and their families hide in deep forests where they can be shot on sight by troops.

Environmental Destruction

In the case of land confiscation and extortion for infrastructure and development projects, land belonging to the Burmese people is destroyed. Environmental destruction takes a toll on women since their capacity to maintain a healthy and clean environmental is decreased, their search for food and water becomes more difficult and their ability to gather food and fuel becomes more time-consuming and labourious.

Forced Labour

Women are a majority of the displaced population, and they often must try to survive in relocation sites and villages where they are burdened by demands for forced labour. Young, old, sick and pregnant women are forced to provide labour, preventing them from securing their own food and subjecting them to rape by troops. Women must earn enough money to pay the labour tax imposed by the military in order to buy their way out of forced labour. If they are unable to afford the tax, they must serve as labourers themselves. The resulting poverty forces women into desperate actions in search for food including going into debt, becoming beggars and undertaking dangerous work such as prostitution for little pay.

Health

A militarised country such as Burma contributes the majority of its resources to the military and ignores vital services to sustain its civilian population, such as health care. Chronic health care under-funding over decades has resulted in a shortage of trained health professionals, insufficient public health facilities, inadequate rural services and meagre health education programs. As a result, the general and reproductive health status of women suffers accordingly. The price of the regime's indifference to health needs is paid largely by women in the form of poor health status, few effective family planning programs, increased maternal mortality, illegal and deadly abortions and an increased incidence of HIV/AIDS. Women most greatly affected by unfulfilled health needs are those forcibly displaced by the military to relocation areas with inadequate clean water supplies, food scarcity, no sanitation and no access to medical facilities or health care. The civil war also causes health difficulties for women through landmines causing injury and death to women, and increasing women's burdens through widowhood and additional caretaker responsibilities.

Education

The prospects for obtaining an education in Burma are dire for all children, but pose particular hardships for girls, as education more often remains beyond their reach. The regime's emphasis on military spending has produced an education system lacking in schools, trained teachers, supplies and funds. The consequences of this failure to educate women cannot be exaggerated: their health is affected negatively, they face limited job opportunities and their chances to participate in their communities as leaders are reduced. These factors work together to keep women in Burma trapped as second-class citizens. Burma's highly militarised culture reinforces traditional gender stereotypes implying education is less important for girls than for boys, and the education of girls should be sacrificed more readily than that of boys in times of economic hardship. Traditional attitudes about the appropriate role of women in the home hinder girls, for there is little social value in educating them beyond bare literacy, paving the way for a generation of uneducated girls.

Ethnic Minority Education

The opportunities for schooling of ethnic minority girls are undermined by warfare with the Burmese military. The civil war has impoverished vast populations, particularly in ethnic minority regions, preventing many girls from attending school since they cannot afford the costs. The internal conflict also creates an atmosphere of danger where it is both physically and emotionally impossible to learn. In addition, junta policy dictates that ethnic schools must close in many ethnic conflict areas. Even if the schools were open, girls could not travel to school outside their villages due to fear of rape by the military in conflict areas.

Rape

Widespread rape of ethnic women by Burmese soldiers occurs in heavily militarised zones along Burma's borders, targeting women from the ethnic minority groups at war with the regime. Rape serves as a continuation of civil warfare off the battlefield, as the military uses rape as a weapon of war to weaken ethnic communities. Women also suffer with sexual violence in urban settings; for example, women have been raped whilst incarcerated or involved in peaceful protests in Burma's cities. Additionally, army officers guarding forced labour projects often demand sexual favours from women in return for lighter duties or for release from the project.

Lack of Punishment

Attempts by rape survivors and their communities to seek justice are either ignored or retaliated against, heightening the terror brought by such crimes and discouraging women from reporting these crimes. The soldiers who rape are not prosecuted or punished, sending the message that the junta is indifferent to the problem of state-sponsored violence against women. It is common for army officers to claim either that their men have not committed a crime, or that their men cannot be controlled. If there is no legal deterrent to such violent actions, soldiers are free to engage in repeated acts of violence against women without facing any consequences.

Forced Marriage

Another practice intended to destroy ethnic minority societies is the process of "Burmanisation" through rape and forced marriage of ethnic minority women. In Burma, the shame of rape often forces women to submit to marriage with the rapist. As a consequence of rape and within forced marriage, many women are impregnated against their will. Soldiers intentionally try to get ethnic women pregnant so they will bear Burman babies as a means to increase the Burman ethnic majority population and to prevent ethnic women from bearing children whose parents are both from ethnic minority groups. The impact of these forced pregnancies is extremely harmful to the women as they experience trauma and stigma, frequently suffering from other grave physical injuries. Sometimes they attempt to abort the pregnancy illegally, often resulting in illness and death. In an effort to obtain money for medical treatment, medicines and abortions, some women must resort to desperate money-seeking measures such as prostitution.

Questions

1. What types of human rights violations are Burmese women vulnerable to and why?

2. What polices and actions can the regime implement to reduce human rights violations against women, and what are the possible results?

3. Why does the regime deny the existence of women's problems and claim that women are entirely equal with men in Burmese society, and how can this claim be refuted?

4. Why is the first step in eliminating discrimination against women acknowledging that such discrimination exists, and what might happen if the regime made this acknowledgement?

5. Why is membership in the Burmese military exclusively male, what effect does this have on women and how might Burma be different with women in the military?

6. How does Burma's military culture influence traditional gender stereotypes?

7. Why does the junta use the media to present an image of the military as protecting the Burmese people, and why does respect for the military persist?

8. Why are Burmese women who express political opinions or engage in political activity harassed and incarcerated, and what might happen if they were not?

9. Why are independent women's organisations not allowed to form or conduct research into Burmese women's issues, and how might Burma be different if they were?

10. How do the Myanmar National Committee for Women's Affairs, Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association and the Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs Association promote national patriotic values rather than the empowerment of women?

11. What are ways these organisations could promote the empowerment of women?

12. How are the consequences of civil war between the military and ethnic minority groups in rural regions dire for women?

13. What is forced relocation, why does the army use this practice and why is it particularly hard on women?

14. What is the military's "Four Cuts" policy, and what purpose does it serve?

15. How does environmental destruction from land confiscation take a toll on women?

16. What is forced labour, and what are its effects on women?

17. What are the results for women of health care under-funding, especially those forcibly displaced by the military to relocation areas?

18. Why does education more often remain beyond the reach of girls, and what are the consequences for women?

19. How do traditional gender stereotypes reduce the social value of an education for girls?

20. How are opportunities for schooling of ethnic minority girls undermined by civil war with the Burmese military?

21. How does the Burmese military use rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war?

22. What sexual violence do women experience in urban settings and why?

23. How are attempts by rape survivors and their communities to seek justice responded to, and how does this influence women's reporting of rape?

24. Why are soldiers who rape not prosecuted or punished, and what message does this send to women?

25. How does the military practice "Burmanisation" through rape and forced marriage of ethnic minority women?

Activities

1. Complete an assignment on Burmese women and issues they currently face. Devise policies and actions the Burmese regime can now implement to resolve the issues of women, and their possible results. Devise counterfactual scenarios for how Burma might be different today if these issues were resolved. Compare and contrast Burmese women and issues with another country, and your own country.

2. Complete an assignment on the regime's denial of the existence of women's problems and their claim that women are entirely equal with men in Burmese society. Devise arguments to refute their claims, and devise counterfactual scenarios for what might happen if the regime acknowledged women's problems.

3. Complete an assignment on the influence of the exclusively male Burmese military on the situation of women. Examine Burma's military culture, its influence on traditional gender stereotypes and the consequences for women. Devise counterfactual scenarios for how might Burma be different with women in the military. Devise policies and actions the regime can now take to include women in the military and change the military culture and gender stereotypes for the benefit of women.

4. Complete an assignment on how Burmese women who express political opinions or engage in political activity are harassed and incarcerated. Devise counterfactual scenarios for what might happen if they were allowed full political participation. Devise policies and actions the regime can now take to grant women full political participation, and their possible results.

5. Complete an assignment on how are independent women's organisations not allowed to form or conduct research into Burmese women's issues. Devise counterfactual scenarios for how might Burma be different if they were. Devise policies and actions for the Myanmar National Committee for Women's Affairs, Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association and the Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs Association to promote the empowerment of women.

6. Complete an assignment on the consequences of civil war between the military and ethnic minority groups in rural regions for women. Examine women's increased responsibilities in maintaining the home and family.

7. Complete an assignment on forced relocation and its effect on women. Examine its relation to the military's "Four Cuts" policy, and the effect of consequent environmental destruction on women.

8. Complete an assignment on forced labour with a focus on its effect on women. Devise alternative labour standards the military could practice and the possible results for women.

9. Complete an assignment on the health issues facing women in Burma. Examine the regime's neglect of health care, and the consequences for women's health. Devise policies and actions for the junta to reform the health system and accommodate the health needs of women, and their possible results.

10. Complete an assignment on how education remains beyond the reach of girls, and the consequences for women. Examine how traditional gender stereotypes reduce the social value of an education for girls and how opportunities for schooling of ethnic minority girls are undermined by civil war. Devise counterfactual scenarios for how Burma might be different if women were more educated. Devise policies and actions the regime can take to support the education of girls, and their possible results.

11. Complete an assignment on the Burmese military's use of rape as a weapon of war, "Burmanisation" through rape and forced marriage and women's experience of urban sexual violence. Examine how attempts by rape survivors and their communities to seek justice are responded to, and how soldiers who rape are not prosecuted or punished. Devise policies and actions the military can implement to resolve these issues, and their possible results.

12. Complete an assignment on global women's statistics and campaigns.

13. Organise classroom discussion and debate representing both sides of women's issues in Burma.

14. Give a speech presentation outlining the arguments and demands of women in Burma.

Web Sites

For further information on the situation for women in Burma, please visit our Links Page.

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Last Modified: Sunday, 22-Apr-2007 16:23:02 EST
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