Breaking Barriers: Myanmar’s Women Push for Peace Against Violence and Exclusion

Mizzima

Progressive Voice have issued a report on 4 October entitled “Breaking Barriers: Myanmar’s Women Push for Peace Against Violence and Exclusion” that examines the challenges for women in Myanmar.

Please see the report below:

Women’s organizations are challenging the assumption that justice and gender equality can wait until the revolution succeeds.

Women in Myanmar have long organized to challenge the structures that deny them power. This year’s International Day of Peace highlighted their insistence that peace requires justice, accountability and women’s political leadership. A revolution seeking to dismantle military domination must confront the patriarchal practices that restrict women’s authority and allow violence against them to go unpunished. Peace must mean that women can live safely, exercise their rights and shape the decisions governing their lives.

Accountability is central to that vision of peace, including within revolutionary forces and areas under their control. Naw Khin San Htwe, General Secretary of Burmese Women’s Union (BWU), has warned that the democratic resistance movement’s armed forces need to enforce their codes of conduct. Meanwhile, Karenni National Women’s Organization (KNWO) chairperson Maw Pray Myar has described instances of armed resistance forces shielding affiliated perpetrators.

Women’s organizations are challenging the assumption that justice and gender equality can wait until the revolution succeeds. Territorial gains cannot substitute for human security, and institutions that protect perpetrators undermine both the democratic resistance movement and the future of the federal democracy they are fighting for and claim to build.

These demands emerge from sustained political organizing. Founded in 1995 by young women who fled the military crackdown on the 1988 nationwide pro-democracy uprising, the BWU made women’s participation in the democracy movement’s leadership and decision-making a central goal. Today, women document abuses, organize communities, support survivors, and advocate for justice, pressing for their contributions to translate into political authority.

In discussions held during the Women’s Peace Forum hosted by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB) from 16 to 18 September, Zue Padonmar, Joint Secretary of Karenni State’s Interim Executive Council (IEC), emphasized that excluding women from decision-making obstructs the institutions the revolution seeks to build. Alongside WLB’s discussions, BWU marked International Day of Peace with an online speech competition that enabled women to articulate their priorities for peace and greater participation in decision-making. The Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) demanded international action to halt arms and aviation fuel supplies to the junta and ensure accountability for human rights violations, demonstrating women’s active role in shaping political demands for genuine peace.

Mu Angela’s appointment as chairperson of the Karenni State Consultative Council (KSCC) marks significant progress. Previously a joint secretary of the council executive committee, she brings leadership experience from women’s and youth organizations. Such appointments must open space for more women to exercise meaningful authority. Peacebuilding requires their influence within the institutions being formed today, including those responsible for civilian protection and the pursuit of justice.

Women pursue these advances amid the military’s relentless campaign of terror and persecution, and entrenched gendered violence across society at large. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) verified that the junta killed 89 women and girls between 1 July and 22 September 2026, including 12 girls under 18; 76 died in airstrikes. The military uses rape and other conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) as weapons of war to terrorize communities and punish perceived support for the resistance. Civil society organizations in Magway have reported women, including older women, being groped at checkpoints under the pretext of body searches. These abuses constrain women’s movement and expose them to violence even during ordinary journeys.

A 22 September Human Rights Watch (HRW) report cites approximately 6,600 women and 640 children among more than 30,000 people detained for political reasons since the coup. Former prisoners, including activists, journalists, healthcare workers and aid workers—described beatings with metal pipes, electric shocks, prolonged solitary confinement, rape and other forms of gender-based violence, as well as invasive searches intended to humiliate. Some were coerced into sexual activity in exchange for medicine or other necessities. Surveillance while showering or changing clothes further denied women privacy and safety.

Pregnant political prisoners face additional cruelty. HRW reports that, in July 2025, the Women’s Organization of Political Prisoners estimated that about 125 women political prisoners were detained while pregnant or with their children. Interviewees described threats to strike their bellies to extract information and denial of prenatal and emergency care. Some women were left to give birth in cells, with former prisoners reporting maternal and infant deaths and stillbirths. After release, some continued to experience depression, isolation and suicidal thoughts. These consequences demand sustained medical and psychosocial support alongside justice.

Fleeing violence offers no guarantee of safety. Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) reports that WLB documented 963 cases of CRSV and SGBV (sexual and gender-based violence) following the coup, while the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) recorded 172 SGBV cases in Shan State between 2022 and 2025. Maw Pray Myar warned: “Most of these violations occur in displacement sites and temporary shelters where people have fled for safety.” Women seeking refuge confront further violence, stigma and barriers to justice.

On 22 September, a 21-year-old displaced woman who was nine months pregnant died by suicide in western Demoso Township, Karenni State; her unborn child also died, according to the Karen Information Center (KIC). The report describes insecurity, unmet basic needs, mounting family distress and urgent mental healthcare needs among displaced communities. Her death underscores the urgency of protection that encompasses shelter, livelihoods, healthcare and psychosocial support. These needs cannot wait for a future peace.

Amid violence, persecution, displacement and exclusion, women continue to organize, support survivors and push for political change. Democratic and revolutionary actors must ensure women’s decision-making authority, enforce protections against SGBV and enable survivors to seek justice without retaliation. Women’s organizations must be able to scrutinize institutions and challenge abuses. Upholding these rights is central to building peace.

The UN Secretary-General’s 2026 report reaffirms the Myanmar military’s widespread and systematic use of sexual violence, including rape, as a tactic of war and political repression. Following UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk’s renewed call to refer the Myanmar situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC), UN Member States, including through the General Assembly, must translate repeated condemnation into concrete action to hold perpetrators accountable and secure justice for survivors.

International partners must back these efforts with sustained political support and flexible, long-term funding for women’s organizing, protection work and pursuit of justice. They must ensure women’s organizations help shape engagement with democratic stakeholders; cut off the junta’s lifelines, including access to arms, dual-use technology, aviation fuel, and finances; and press for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners. Lasting peace depends on ending violence and impunity, and on ensuring women share equal political and decision-making power. The institutions being built today toward a federal democratic Myanmar must uphold the equality, inclusivity, justice and accountability promised for tomorrow.