Episode #70: Towards a More Just Society
We are pleased to be bringing you the inaugural episode in our new “Gender Study” series!
Today’s guest has spent years researching gender studies, women’s rights, and violence against women in Burmese society. While quite acclaimed in her field, for safety reasons she will be known simply by the pseudonym “Marlar” in this episode.
Marlar notes that the traditional family structure in Myanmar is patriarchal, which she describes through the lens of a Burmese Buddhist belief called “pon.” Pon refers to the inherent good karma allegedly bestowed upon men. Having been born into a gender which permits them to become monks, men accrue special merit which is not possible for Burmese women because there is no accepted bhikkhuni order in Myanmar. Due to pon, Marlar is prevented from meditating in certain places in Shwedagon Pagoda, which led her as a girl to wonder if even the lowest male thief has more merit than she or any other woman does in Burma.
“It's just a belief that men have this superior quality,” Marlar says, “it's a very abstract idea, but it's already socialized and internalized in our minds that men have pon, so regardless of their position, in the workplace or anywhere, they are superior, so they shouldn't be challenged. And they should always be treated as different from a woman.”
Marlar acknowledges that her critique of the ways in which Burmese women are marginalized flies in the face over a century of writings that in fact claim the opposite. First, early British literature from colonial administrators highlighted the greater freedoms they observed among Burmese women as compared to other colonies in India and the Middle East. Then, in the 20th century, several notable Burmese female writers, such as Ma Thanegi and Mi Mi Khaing, made similar claims, pushing a theory of agency and independence for Burmese women. This same notion was evidenced in our recent episode with MiMi Aye, in which she pushed back against Western media’s characterizations of Burmese women as “demure”. Marlar’s concern is that authors advancing this claim are writing from a place of privilege that is more indicative of their own circumstances, and at the expense of understanding the lived reality of the vast majority of other women across the country.
As Marlar says, “I think that is a very dangerous move to generalize the entire population with a single narrative. We always have to bear in mind that even though I have a greater freedom, it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone will have that freedom. What about those women who are suffering, because nobody can hear them? They are shouting. They might have agency, but everything else is not favoring them. So I think that we have to be very careful to make a generalization.”
Along with her more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of gender roles in Burmese society, Marlar notes the role that technology and the Internet have played in connecting the Burmese people to the rest of the world. This allowed the #MeToo movement to take off in Myanmar, as, in Marlar’s opinion, Burmese women realized “that they are not alone, and this is a universal problem. It is also a human rights violation, and they started asserting it, and started to feel empowered.” However, Marlar also saw how the same was not true of men, who began to feel threatened, and so even with these gradual changes, domestic violence rates in Myanmar have not diminished.
This issue of intergenerational violence against women has been at the core of Marlar’s research. Her studies have demonstrated that children who watch their mother get beaten are much more likely to perpetuate the pattern when they become adults. As clear as the data is to her, she is frustrated that the findings have not been attended to by wider society. “I have been researching this violence for a long time,” she says. “And it seems like I am not getting through. I started feeling like the society as a whole, we don't care enough about women. We don't want to protect women.”
In Marlar’s view, any potential solution needs to be holistic, bringing together family, community, and culture to end this destructive cycle. Towards this end, she worked with both community organizations and legislators prior to the coup; however, she was dismayed that what would have been a watershed law punishing violence against women was not passed, meaning that even women in abusive homes cannot easily file for divorce.
She feels that part of the reason for this failure was that the Rohingya crisis monopolized the NLD’s attention, but she also places blame squarely on Aung San Suu Kyi. “I think that it's wrong to assume that when you have a woman leader, then women issues will be prioritized. It was a wrong assumption. Although you have a woman leader in the top position, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will be feminist. So I wouldn't say that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is a feminist… I think that if the ministries integrated more feminist policymakers, not necessarily women, but men can also be feminist policymakers, and also people from ethnic backgrounds and young people, I think they would have made it differently.”
From there the discussion moves to the sensitive topic of rape. Marlar explains that one of the main reasons it goes underreported is out of shame. However there not only is shame for the woman, but also on the male relatives, who feel emasculated for failing to properly protect them. To Marlar, this is why rape is a favored tactic of the Tatmadaw, as it undermines the pride and morale of the men they are fighting. Since the coup, Marlar notes how many reports have already been heard about rape and sexual violence occurring in detention centers, prisons, and conflict areas.
She notes, “If you rape women, you not only destroy a woman, or you also intimidate the fathers, brothers, so it's a huge win for them. I think it is also a good strategy to intimidate women not to engage. They are now using this weapon again, and they are not afraid to use it, because they have been doing it for a long time. But they have never been held accountable for it.”
With the military now trying to maintain their tenuous hold on power, Marlar is concerned what this could mean for the country’s women. She calls attention to the disastrous Race and Religion Protection Laws that the USDP has been pursuing, a xenophobic and misogynistic attempt to prevent Buddhist women from marrying outside their religion.
But as challenging and important as the struggle for gender equality is in Myanmar, nothing compares to the current state since the coup was launched, which she calls a total “nightmare” in which basic human rights have disappeared.
Learn about the poem read during this episode, Bleeding Sky.