Then came Ma Kyal Sin, a 19-year-old killed in early March at a protest in Mandalay, in the north of the country, who became another symbol, along with the phrase written on her t-shirt that day: “Everything will be OK.” The first was 20-year-old Mya Thwe Thwe Khine, who became a symbol for the movement after her death on 19 February. Many of the women who have taken to the streets have given their lives to protect Myanmar’s fragile democracy, says Wah Khu Shee. Many are nurses, teachers and textile factory workers, who already found themselves in a vulnerable situation due to Covid-19.
More people joined in and now it has become a national movement.”Īccording to data provided to Radio Free Asia by the local organisation Gender Equality Network, women make up some 60 per cent of the protesters who have taken to the streets and between 70 and 80 per cent of the movement’s leaders. They were the ones that first began organising it. As Wah Khu Shee, director of the Karen Peace Support Network and a member of the Karen Women’s Organisation, both linked to the Karen ethnic group, explains: “The first people to take to the streets, the ones leading the movement, were young women in Myanmar.