| Women
in Burma experience physical and sexual violence at
work, in public places, and in their own homes, and
are unprotected by law or authorities. Women and girls
are being forced into exploitative sex work, unprotected
from violence and sexually transmitted infections. Military
personnel continue to rape women, without fear of punishment
or consequences. Women are conscripted to forced labor
by the military. The forced labor includes being forced
to carry heavy loads, do dangerous unpaid work, and
to leave their children unsupervised, including during
pregnancy and ill-health. |
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The military junta
is an exclusively male structure - there are no women
ministers or in key positions of the administration.
A number of wives of the SPDC generals are considered
to hold considerable informal power, institutionalized
through junta-sponsored “NGOs”. The Myanmar
Women’s Affairs Federation (MWAF) is used to
put a “civilian” face and gender spin
on junta policy. It is present key events such as
the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women, denounces documentation of abuses,
women leaders in the democracy movement and their
organizations.
While pro-democracy groups are not
entirely free of discrimination against women, women
are very active. A new generation of young women is
emerging to challenge the junta, as well as challenge
social norms that discriminate against women.
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Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the undisputed democratic leader
of Burma and continues to lead the democracy movement
from house arrest. |
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At least 96 women political prisoners are currently
incarcerated in Burma’s prisons for their political
activities and leadership. Women, and their children,
face particular hardships in Burma’s prison system
including physical and sexual violence, disease, and
dire sanitation. |
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The four women MPs elected in 1990 were never allowed
to fulfill their mandate. Daw May Win Myint, MP-elect
for Rangoon has been wrongfully jailed since 1997 and
should have been released. The Burmese military regime
has instead been extending her detention. |
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Women in Burma
work primarily in factories, as street vendors, prostitutes
and domestic help. Poverty is forcing daughters to share
this burden, taking them away from school. At their
workplaces, women are exploited as workers, and experience
sexual and physical violence, without recourse to legal
protection. Girls are leaving school to take care of
younger siblings and working to help feed their families.
The SPDC requires women not engaged
in paid employment to perform forced labor, including
working on infrastructure and agricultural projects,
providing food and service to military barracks, and
portering. Additionally, large infrastructure projects
often take husbands to forced labor projects away
from the home, leaving women to manage family businesses
and support families on their own.
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The Asian Development Bank reports that the military
and police are one of the largest client groups –
both paying and non-paying – in Burma’s
sex industry. |
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The popularity of “Fashion Shows” has
spread to army bases, with women conscripted through
a “selection” process as sex slaves. |
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Persecution and lack of legal protection from authorities
is leaving women and girls to work in circumstances
that they cannot control or negotiate, with 25% of
sex workers now HIV positive. |
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Travel restrictions on young women in ethnic areas,
have only served to increase the cost for women for
paying bribes and increased reliance on brokers. |
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| Inadequate health
care, restricted access, poverty and lack of knowledge
is leading women to seek traditional healthcare - risking
infection, disease, and death. |
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One third of pregnancies end in abortion. Abortion
complications are responsible for up to 60% of direct
obstetric deaths recorded in hospital. Maternal mortality
rates are estimated to be 360 per 100,000 live births,
and accounts for more than half the deaths of women.
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UNAIDS estimates between 51,000 to 180,000 women are
living with HIV/AIDS in Burma. Prevalence in pregnant
women may have risen over 3%. The ratio of men to
women infected with HIV/AIDS, 12:1 in the early nineties,
is now 3:1. |
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Poverty, high levels of mobility and displacement,
low awareness of family planning, HIV transmission,
scarcity of health care services, a growing sex industry,
injecting drug use, and sexual violence are putting
women at grave risk. |
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| Serious
incidents of sexual violence continue in Burma, in particular
those perpetrated by members of the SPDC. SPDC military
personnel of various ranks continue to rape women without
fear of punishment. These acts also occur with no consideration
of traditional cultural shame attached to violence against
women. Violence is being used against women to intimidate
not only individuals but to punish opposition supporters
and demoralize ethnic groups. |
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The 2003 report “License to Rape”, which
detailed 173 cases in which 625 women and girls were
raped by SPDC soldiers, was groundbreaking, drawing
the world’s attention to the systematic rape of
women in Burma, particularly women in ethnic nationality
areas and conflict zones. |
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Since then, other groups have come forward with reports
of sexual violence against women, documenting a systematic
pattern of the use of sexual violence as a military
strategy in Burma and the climate of impunity in which
it occurs. |
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