Myanmar's Women Are Fighting for a New Future After a Long History of Military Oppression

TIME

BY MIMI AYE

MAY 31, 2021 

Aye is the author of award-winning cookery book Mandalay: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen. She was born and brought up in the U.K. by Burmese parents, but regularly visits friends and family back in Burma. Aye also hosts the food and culture podcast The MSG Pod.

The world will have noted that women have been on the front lines of the revolution in Myanmar, with activists, elected officials, and journalists such as Ei Thinzar Maung, Thinzar Shunlei Yi, Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, Daw Myo Aye, Naw K’nyaw Paw, and Tin Htet Paing playing significant roles.

Many have assumed that this is a newfound feminist ferocity, but from ancient Queen Pwa Saw, to the first woman surgeon Daw Saw Sa, who qualified in 1911, Myanmar women have always been as strong as, if not stronger than, our men. The sad truth is our cause was set back by over 60 years of brutal and misogynistic oppression by the Burmese military.

Milk Tea Alliance' activists across Asia hold rallies against Myanmar coup

REUTERS

By Fanny Potkin, Patpicha Tanakasempipat
FEBRUARY 28, 2021

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Activists across Asia held rallies on Sunday to support protesters in Myanmar fighting against a military coup, showing the growing influence of cross-border youth movements pushing for democracy with the rallying cry “Milk Tea Alliance”.

Myanmar citizens shout as they join a Thai an anti-government protest in Bangkok, Thailand February 28, 2021. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Following a call for help from Myanmar pro-democracy campaigners, around 200 people in Taipei and dozens in Bangkok, Melbourne and Hong Kong took to the streets waving #MilkTeaAlliance signs and flags.

The hashtag, which originated as a protest against online attacks from nationalists in China, was used millions of times on Sunday. Its name originates from the shared passion for the milky drink in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.[L4N2FJ12F]

Rohingya crisis: Exiled blogger describes Myanmar violence

DW
Date:

 

Rohingya activist and blogger Nay San Lwin has been documenting torture and subjugation faced by his people in Myanmar. His blog has become one of the most reliable sources on the brutal crackdown against the Rohingya.Long before the suffering inflicted on Myanmar's prompted global outcry, Nay San Lwin's website, Rohingya Blogger, provided daily updates on the Muslim minority's everday plight.

Covid-19 pushed Rohingyas towards hunger, malnutrition: Experts

UNB

UNB News
Dhaka
July 10, 2020,

File photo

Experts at an e-symposium on Thursday said the lockdowns and economic slowdown for Covid-19 pandemic in different countries have robbed Rohingya refugee communities further of their livelihood opportunities and pushed them into hunger and malnutrition.

They made these remarks at an e-symposium titled ‘Hunger, Exploitation, Hate Crime and Xenophobia! Rohingyas on Land and at Sea’ organised by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) in collaboration with Free Rohingya Coalition.

Rohingyas facing more xenophobia amid the Covid-19 pandemic: activists

The Daily Star
July 09, 2020
Star Online Report

Rohingya refugees walk towards the Balukhali refugee camp after crossing the border in Bangladesh’s Ukhia district, on November 2, 2017. Photo: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP

Rohingya activists have urged the host countries to stop hatred against them and treat them as human beings, saying the refugees, who have fled genocidal acts in Myanmar, are now facing a higher level of xenophobia amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Stating that countries like Malaysia and Thailand had refused entry to Rohingyas who tried to go on their shores citing fears of coronavirus infection, they said it was not their choice to take such risky journeys but the grave rights violations back in Myanmar had forced them to do so.

Activists championed by rights groups have history of anti-Rohingya messaging

Frontier

MYANMAR

ANDREW NACHEMSON and LUN MIN MANG
Sunday, May 24, 2020

Ko Zayar Lwin (centre left, with white rose) attends a court in Yangon with other Peacock Generation members on October 30, 2019. (Nyein Su Wai Kyaw Soe | Frontier)

 

Some prominent activists who say they stand for human rights and democracy have propagated hatred for the Rohingya, a double-standard that international watchdog groups weren’t fully aware of. 

 

Ko Zayar Lwin, 29, has become an icon in Myanmar’s activist community since his arrest in April 2019 for a Thangyat performance mocking the military. Zayar Lwin and four of his colleagues in the Peacock Generation troupe, who performed the traditional form of satirical theatre during the annual Thingyan festival, were charged with defamation and undermining the military, and face increasingly lengthy jail sentences. The plight of the young satirists has attracted international attention, even as the civilian government led by their idol State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has remained silent.

Activista rohinyá: "Aung San Suu Kyi es cómplice de genocidio"

EFE.COM
13 DEC. 2019

 The Activist Rohingya exiled in Germany nay San Lwin said this Friday in an interview with efe that the Nobel Peace prize and leader of Myanmar (Ancient Burma), Aung San Suu Kyi, " is an accomplice of genocide " and must be considered a " Denialist ".

" there were a lot of people, especially the diplomatic world, who said I was not well informed. Tuesday had the possibility to listen to a three-hour presentation at the international court of justice (Icj) that described how the rohingya were massacred by their army ", explained San Lwin.
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El activista rohinyá exiliado en Alemania Nay San Lwin dijo este viernes en una entrevista con Efe que la premio Nobel de la Paz y líder de Myanmar (antigua Birmania), Aung San Suu Kyi, "es cómplice de genocidio" y debe ser considerada una "negacionista".
"Había mucha gente, especialmente del mundo diplomático, que decía que no estaba bien informada. El martes tuvo la posibilidad de escuchar una presentación de tres horas en la Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ) que describió cómo los rohinyás fueron masacrados por su ejército", explicó San Lwin.

Link:https://www.efe.com/efe/espana/portada/activista-rohinya-aung-san-suu-kyi-es-complice-de-genocidio/10010-4132044?fbclid=IwAR1RwUDBNwlpxyKXVwQTGUntlga38tj38_yxCfUxrKsoE_eRpyku
LNAC--A#

World, ASEAN must do more to resolve Rohignya crisis - Activist

Bernama.com  

03/10/2019

By Nabilah Saleh

President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, 
Tun Khin during the interview at Wisma Bernama.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 -- The international community must put in more effort and cooperation in pressuring the Myanmar government to tackle the Rohingya issue.

President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, Tun Khin, told Bernama International News Service recently that much more must be done even as the crisis was addressed by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad during the recently-concluded 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Activists welcome UN's financial boycott of Myanmar

AA

Md. Kamruzzaman | 

15.05.2019

UN panel recommend bringing Myanmar’s military commanders before credible court for trial

DHAKA

Rohingya activists and their international supporters have welcomed and endorsed the UN panel's call for the withdrawal of financial and other supports to Myanmar and fair trial of its military commanders on charges of war crime and genocide.