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Interview with Shan Woman
Interview with Shan Woman
The following is an excerpt from Burma's Excluded Majority, by Teresa O' Shannassy of Changing Minds. Changing Lives. For further information, please contact ciir@ciir.org or www.ciir.org
| Q: | How would you describe gender relations in Burma? Do women face discrimination? |
| A: | There is strong discrimination against girls in
Burma. The idea that boys and men are superior affects our everyday
lives. For example, even where I am staying now in Thailand with
Shan people, I cannot iron my clothes because the iron is used for
the men's clothes and so it shouldn't touch a woman's clothes. Most
girls believe in tradition and are still taught to clean and cook
and sew. Even if girls don't want to do these things they must.
In Shan State, because of the poverty and the civil war, the boundaries have been blurred and you do not see gender discrimination as clearly. Everyone has to work hard. Girls have to work hard like their mothers and boys have to work hard like their fathers. But if there is a chance for one child to go to school it is always the boy. It is difficult for women sometimes because they have to work on the farm all day and then come home and cook. Women whose husbands are killed in the civil war sometimes marry again very quickly. No one really has time to help the widows because everyone is trying to survive. |
| Q: | Are women encouraged to participate in the democracy movement or opposition politics? |
| A: | In Shan State many girls and women want to be
active but they think the best way to do this is to join the army
and fight the Burmese military. In the democracy movement there is
not enough attention pain to women's issue or to ethnic issues.
Many ethnic women do not fully trust all the women's organizations.
There is an underlying mistrust and we need to work on building
trust. If we have women's forums they must be independent, where
everyone has a chance to participate equally. No one group should
dominate.
The problem of trust is related to the 50 years of civil war. For example the Shan people trust Daw Aung San Suu Kyi but do not trust the NLD as much. They don't know if the NLD will really do anything for the ethnic people. |
| Q: | What are the specific problems facing women?
Most young girls in Shan State go to Thailand to work. They think it must be better in Thailand than in Burma. Many parents think their daughters would be safer and better off in Thailand and encourage them to go. Most girls expect to get jobs as waitresses or domestic workers but some families ask their daughters to go and work as prostitutes to earn money for their family. Most of them will go. |
| A: | I work with young girls who have been prostitutes
in Thailand. Their average age is 17. Many girls told me that the
agent came to their village and promised them work as domestic
workers or in restaurants. Some of the girls were unsure, so the
agents made them feel guilty and said things like: 'Don't you want
to help your family? Look at everything your family has done to
help you'. Many girls went because they felt guilty. Most girls I
have talked to come from very poor families and most have had no
education at all. Many of the families have big debt problems
because they have to sell so much of their rice to the military at
low prices. Then they cannot make any money and cannot survive
properly. So the agents come to these families and say: 'Here is
the money you need. Now we will take your daughter to work for us
for a few months'.
Many girls work in massage parlours. Even though some of them chose to come and work in Thailand, they had no idea what they would face. They all wanted to leave. Some of them were arrested and had to go to court. The owners never get prosecuted but the girls sometimes go to jail. In the massage parlours the girls have to buy their own contraception. They also worry that if they go back to Shan State they won't have enough money and might have to come back and work again. |
| Q: | How do you think women's rights can be protected and promoted within a democratic Burma? |
| A: | The government should make laws that protect
women's rights. There must be more women in government. Many women
in the democracy movement are already involved and will be ready to
work in national politics. We should learn from the Thai system
where there is a law that three in 10 parliamentarians must be
women.
Ethnic issues must be priority. When many exiled girls and women go back to Burma they will go to the cities but most ethnic women will go back to the border areas. Ethnic women will need more attention than women in urban areas will. This issue is not yet being discussed. Ethnic people have to fight for two things - ethnic equality and democracy. We have to push ourselves forward because our people do not have enough confidence yet. The Burmese (Burma) people also need to change their view of ethnic groups. We don't want them to solve our problems - we can solve our own problems. The Shan men and women work side by side to achieve ethnic equality. |
International Conference on Shan Studies