File Photo: Some women fleeing the war in Loikaw City in November 2023 (Photo: KHAI)
Mizzima
As the world celebrated International Women’s Day on 8 March, women and girls across Myanmar continue to bear the horrific cost of the military junta’s war of terror against the people and the international community’s ongoing abject failure to end that violence, according to campaign group Progressive Voice.
Nonetheless, Myanmar’s women remain at the helm of the Spring Revolution, dedicating and sacrificing their lives to resist the military junta, dismantle misogyny and patriarchy, and build an inclusive, peaceful federal democratic Myanmar.
Progressive Voice says that to genuinely support Myanmar’s women as they continue their valuable work, the international community must take swift, decisive action to put an end to the military junta, hold it accountable for its crimes, and pursue justice for all of Myanmar’s people.
Since the illegal coup attempt, women have suffered horrific violence from the military junta and its countrywide terror campaign.
Between February 2021 and February 2024, the military junta killed at least 810 women—including Noble Aye, a defiant political activist—and arrested at least 5,416 women, with nearly 4,000 still detained on International Women’s Day, according to Progressive Voice.
During detention, the military junta systematically commits sexual violence and torture against women political prisoners, including through gang rape, beatings, and verbal abuse.
Outside junta detention, women are similarly bearing the brunt of the junta’s war of terror, as junta troops rape, torture, and murder women during ground raids.
Moreover, frequent junta attacks on healthcare facilities are forcing countless pregnant women to give birth on the run. Forcibly displaced pregnant women also severely lack necessary nutrition, rest, and medical care, as they are often in hiding far from hospitals and on high alert for junta attacks.
Over the past three years, the military junta has undeniably reversed progress for women’s rights in Myanmar by decades, forcing the situation of women back to the dark era and worsening the already extremely challenging struggles they face every day.
Of most recent concern, the military junta’s forced conscription will have significant gendered impacts on women and girls. These impacts include exposing the women forcibly recruited and those forced to flee to brutal forms of sexual violence and exploitation. What’s more, with men being largely conscripted, women will be left to handle household duties and care reinforcing traditional gender roles and stereotypes.
Likewise, the Myanmar military’s attacks against ethnic minority communities continue to have horrifying gendered consequences for women and girls, says Progressive Voice. For decades, the military has used rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority women, including the Rohingya.
In 2018, the UN blacklisted the Myanmar military for being “credibly suspected” of committing sexual violence in armed conflict. Today, the military’s ongoing persecution of the Rohingya continues to force thousands of Rohingya to escape by boat—around 65 percent of whom are women and children. During their maritime escape and beyond, Rohingya women and girls are in particular at risk of rape, sexual exploitation, and other brutal forms of sexual violence by actors including their traffickers and crew members, according to Progressive Voice.
Nevertheless, despite the junta’s campaign of terror, Myanmar’s women are standing strong at the forefront of the Spring Revolution. In recent years, women have assumed more community and political leadership positions, increasing inclusion at all levels of decision-making. Women are also leading nationwide protests, frontline humanitarian groups, and units within resistance armed forces.
In the words of Karenni Human Rights Group, “Since the attempted coup, women have continued to spearhead change by challenging stereotypical gender norms that undermined the skills and capabilities of women…They have not lost their agency nor their commitment to seeing a future in Burma that is not only free from military rule but also free from patriarchy.”
Progressive Voice says that to truly support the women of Myanmar, the international community must immediately take concrete action to hold the illegal military junta accountable for its international crimes—either through a referral of the crisis in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or the creation of a criminal prosecutorial mechanism.
Equally important is that, at the community level, pervasive sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) stems from decades of military impunity, leaving countless Myanmar women without any access to justice. This moment of the Spring Revolution—with the young generations ’efforts to end patriarchy and misogyny—represents an unprecedented opportunity to also end this community-level impunity. But this can only happen if the misogynistic military junta is held to account—which would set a necessary precedent for ending SGBV and discrimination against women across Myanmar, according to Progressive Voice.
Moreover, through a victim-centered approach, the international community must further push for justice, remedies, and reparations to be actualized for all victims and survivors of the military’s crimes. At the same time, the world must also urgently increase support for Myanmar’s women—including human rights defenders, victims and survivors of human rights violations, frontline forces fighting the junta, and political leaders in interim federal units and ethnic governance structures.
Ultimately, as Myanmar’s women continue their tireless efforts to build a peaceful, inclusive, and democratic society, the international community must complement their work through swift, concrete action to put a true end to the military junta and hold it accountable under international law. In the words of the Women’s League of Burma, it’s time for everyone to “fight against the mindset of patriarchy and excuses that prolong the military junta. Let’s unite and fight for gender equality and a just society.
