Written By Lorna Blackley, BA (Hons) Politics and International Relations & Social Policy
This is the seventh and final blog post in our series by Feminism and Politics students from 2020-21. Click here for the previous post, by Emily Bryce, on the case of Princess Latifa of the United Arab Emirates.
“Everything will be okay”; the writing on Kyal Sin’s T-shirt was a simple message but one that captured the hearts of many protesters in Myanmar. Sin was shot dead by the security forces in its repression of the intense civil unrest which has consumed the country for over five months now. The nineteen-year-old has become a martyr for thousands who come out in opposition to the recent coup carried out against the first democratically elected State Counsellor of Myanmar and leader of the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi. Civilian clashes with police and military saw fifty-six protesters killed and a further 1,790 arrested or detained in only one month after the coup on 1 February 2021, a surprising number of them young women. Despite the risks, women gathered for daily marches, representing striking unions of teachers, textile workers and medical workers — all heavily female dominated industries, in defiance of the police and military. These women have arguably been the backbone to a civil disobedience movement aimed at crippling the functioning of the state.
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| Aung San Suu Kyi, Chairperson of the Burmese National League for Democracy, Credit: Claude Truong-Ngoc, source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi#/media/File: Remise_du_Prix_Sakharov_%C3%A0_Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_Strasbourg_22_octobre_2013-18.jpg |
The protests ignited just weeks after the arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, following allegations from the military government, the State Peace and Development Council that her party won the November 2020 elections through fraudulent means. Aung San Suu Kyi is a prominent, if controversial, political figure who played a notable role in the country’s recent transition towards democratic rule. Her arrest ignited an anti-military spirit throughout the country, leading to mass demonstrations in many cities and towns calling for the end of the junta which has forcibly taken back control of the government and for a return to democratic rule.
Much of the existing literature surrounding democratisation and the movements behind it remains gender-blind. It pays little attention to the role of gender (and of women) throughout democratic transitions or to the gendered nature of these processes, despite the key role of women’s movements.[1] Feminist scholar Georgina Waylen argues that the source of this gendered omission lies in societies’ understanding of democracy itself. Democracy is widely accepted as a universal “good”, producing the best political outcome for every citizen. In this sense, democracy is reduced simply to a “political method" or “simply an institutional arrangement to generate and legitimate leadership”, usually within the public sphere.[2] Issues then arise because, in many societies, the public sphere is still largely male and the average citizen is by default a “he”.[3] The influence of gender on the political process is effectively ignored and the experiences of men promoted as the norm. Connectedly, cultural beliefs regarding women’s positions within the private sphere often lead to their involvement in social movements at the local level being undervalued and regarded as “non-political”.[4]
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| General Min Aung Hlaing, Chairman of the State Administration Council of Myanmar. Credit: Vadim Savitsky, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Min_Aung_Hlaing_in_April_2019.jpg |
Politics in Myanmar remains a heavily male-dominated arena. Despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s ascent to leadership, it is important to remember that the recent transition to democracy was initiated and largely controlled by the military. Political scientists Gabrielle Bardall and Elin Bjarnegård argue that the femininity and democratic ideals represented by the female leader are a thin veil disguising a system that upholds and reproduces a long-standing tradition of women’s political oppression. As these authors make clear, patriarchal ideals remain entrenched in the 2008 constitution that prompted a decade of democracy. Women are banned from certain ministerial positions, which are described as being suitable for men only. The Union Civil Service Board consistently blocks applications by women for both junior- and mid- level positions. The military have also reserved the right to appoint 25% of legislative seats, many of which require a military background. Having only recently been able to join the military, this requirement makes women effectively ineligible for such positions. Following the 2015 elections, only two women were appointed to 166 positions of office. Finally, while the 2015 and 2020 elections saw women’s representation within parliament increase from less than 5% to just over 15%, this is only limited progress. As Bardall and Bjarnegård conclude, equality remains impeded by the patriarchal military who formulated the democratic transition in such a way as to ensure their continued influence and to severely hinder women’s political inclusion.
However, the ongoing protests in Myanmar are mobilizing many young women like never before, in ways that both draw upon and challenge gendered stereotypes. For example, women made their influence felt in Yangon on international Women’s Day 2021, when they strung underwear and traditional sarongs known as htameins on high washing lines to create barricades. Police and soldiers were hesitant to walk underneath the clothes due to a superstitious belief that doing so would bring them bad luck and “sap them of their masculinity”. Images of women taking to the street in formal gowns have also been shown around the world, a reflection of the uniquely feminine spirit of the movement and also a clever riposte to the conservative military government, who have publicly voiced their opinions surrounding the importance of “modest dress for proper ladies”.
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| Women wearing formal gowns marching in the streets of Myanmar. Credit: The New York Times, Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/world/asia/myanmar-protests-women.html |
As the protests have gathered momentum, female protesters have played to their traditional roles as mothers and carers to further their political aims. Placards of Aung San Suu Kyi portray her as “the mother of the nation”, a caring matriarch whose democratic ideals stand in stark contrast to the patriarchal junta. Protesters themselves have expressed how these identities have influenced their political mobilization. Dr Yin Yin Hnoung, a 28-year-old involved in the protests, is quoted in the New York Times explaining, “young women are now leading the protests because we have a maternal nature and can’t let the next generation be destroyed. We don’t care about our lives. We care about the next generation”. By framing themselves within these already recognised stereotypes, the women are better able to translate their demands in to easily recognized cultural terms, understood by both the broader population as well as the political elites they seek to challenge. This shows how political institutions may afford women different opportunities to campaign for political change in comparison to men.[5]
Using the example of Lysistrata, Kelsy Kretschmer and David Meyer discuss how their exclusion from mainstream political influence may motivate women to engage in other forms of political participation, such as protest.[6] The women of Myanmar have resorted to such protests as a way of making their demands known in the absence of structural political representation. Much like Lysistrata, these women have lost faith in those who propose to represent them. As such, their lack of political representation and their resulting level of influence are in themselves gendered. Yet the authoritarian rule of the junta has paradoxically allowed women the space to mobilize and to develop new ways to achieve visibility and new ways of “doing politics”.[7] While I am not making the argument that an increased proportion of women within Myanmar’s military would have ultimately prevented the coup and the resulting civil unrest, it is clear to see how a lack of representation has motivated many women to protest against the coup.
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| Burmese military police arrest a protestor, credit: Burmese Democratic Concern, source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bdcburma/16599026668 |
In present day Myanmar, now five months on from the beginning of the coup that sparked civil unrest, protests show no sign of stopping. Women all over the country continue to mobilise, despite deadly countermeasures from their opposition. At the time of writing, over 900 Burmese citizens have been killed by military forces, with a further 5,000 arrested, charged or sentenced as political prisoners, while others throughout the country experience frequent media and internet blackouts. The women of modern Myanmar are motivated by their desire not only for democracy, but also for the benefits afforded to women in democracy. The scale of their involvement in the protests can ultimately be put down to a distinct lack of political representation within a disproportionately oppressive system. Without a successful transition to democracy, one which acknowledges the voices and needs of the female population, Myanmar runs the risks of further alienating women and leaving them vulnerable. Although the odds are against them, brave female protesters like Kyal Sin are determined not to let that happen.
References
[1]
Waylen, G. (2018) Democracy, Democratization and Gender. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, https://oxfordre.com/internationalstudies/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.001.0001/acrefore-9780190846626-e-383
[2]
Waylen, Democracy, Democratization and Gender.
[3]
Waylen, G., (1994) Women and Democratization: Conceptualizing
gender relations in transition politics. World Politics, 46 (3): 327-354.
[4] Kretschmer, K. and D.S. Meyer (2013) Organising around Gender Identities,
in G. Waylen et al (eds) The Oxford
Handbook of Gender and Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[5] Kretschmer and Meyer, Organising
around Gender Identities; Baldez, L., (2002) Why Women Protest: Women's Movements
in Chile. Cambridge University Press.
[6]
Kretschmer and Meyer, Organising around Gender Identities.
[7]
Waylen, Women and Democratization.
