Myanmar’s women caught between war, disaster and blocked aid

A monastery sheltering about 100 people in northern Myanmar has been bombed by the military, killing monks and civilians in what rights groups say is part of a broader pattern of attacks on religious sites.

The air strike on March 20 hit the monastery in Katha, in Sagaing region — a town where author George Orwell once lived and which inspired his novel Burmese Days.

A year ago, a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake centred in Sagaing Region killed thousands of people and destroyed homes and infrastructure across six regions and states.

The effects are still being felt, with attempts to rebuild hindered by the junta’s continued attacks on civilian infrastructure — including religious buildings.

“Monasteries are where people come together to eat, to pray, to survive,” said Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a pro-democracy activist who founded the NGO Sisters 2 Sisters, which provides aid to women.

“The military is now attacking the heart of our faith: the Buddhist monkhood and our religious spaces,” she told the ABC.

She said the military appeared to be targeting areas it believed were linked to resistance forces, including monasteries, treating those sheltering there as enemies.

“They are indiscriminately attacking all civilians … even religious sites supporting community members as a shelter,” Thinzar Shunlei Yi explained, after speaking to survivors.

She added that the attacks appear aimed at instilling fear and tightening control as junta leader Min Aung Hlaing was elected as president in an election widely seen by Western governments as a “sham”.

The strike in Katha was not an isolated incident.

A day later, a monastery and school in Kani Township, east of Mandalay, were bombed, according to local news reports.

This week in Karen State, along the border with Thailand, another monastery was reportedly attacked.

Since the military seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021 in a coup, peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, and many opponents of the military rule took up arms.

Thinzar Shunlei Yi said these recent attacks in Sagaing Region, which is a stronghold of armed resistance against the military, showed there was nowhere safe for civilians.

“Once they bomb monasteries — places that support the community — it’s an attack on people’s mindset, the mindset of resistance,” she said.

The military did not reply to a request for comment.

Rights groups, including Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), have documented the Myanmar military’s attacks on religious buildings as part of its widespread, post-coup campaign against civilians.

Aid blocked — including menstrual pads

Aid groups say blockades in Sagaing Region are ongoing, with the Myanmar military continuing to restrict the flow of basic supplies into areas hit by conflict and the earthquake.

“They intentionally put in a policy to block the delivery of menstrual products,” said Thinzar Shunlei Yi.

Grassroots groups, including Sisters 2 Sisters, are still trying to raise funds and deliver gender-specific aid — sanitary pads and medical supplies — to women in affected areas.

Their volunteers were recently blocked from distributing aid in Pale and Yin Mar Pin townships located in Sagaing Region.

“The main reason the military has given for blocking this aid is they suspect these products will be used by the PDF,” said Thinzar Shunlei Yi, referring to the opposition People’s Defence Force (PDF).

“[The military says that] people will use it [pads] to cover their wounds.”

She described the restriction as “a direct attack on women’s bodies”.

International humanitarian groups have also struggled to access conflict-affected regions.

“We’re trying to support farming communities in Sagaing, where their livelihoods were interrupted both by the earthquake … [and] the conflict that’s happening on all sides of them,” said Ross Farmery, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Mandalay.

He said landmines and unexploded ordnance were also an issue for those returning to their homes.

“They’re displaced, then coming back, but there’s weapons contamination,” he said. “So there’s all these things on top of the earthquake.”

Fragile rebuilding

About 8,300 religious monuments and temples were damaged or destroyed by the earthquake, according to the U.N. Education Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Among the sites damaged was the Kuthodaw Pagoda, home to a collection of Buddhist scripture tablets inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.

“When these places are harmed, communities lose anchors of memory and belonging,” said a UNESCO spokesperson.

Repair of historical buildings is slow, but in cities like Mandalay, shops have reopened and on the surface, daily life appears to be resuming.

Even during fuel shortages, people improvise — setting up stalls beside long petrol queues to sell drinks and snacks.

But aid agencies warn the effects of the Middle East conflict on fuel, food and fertiliser are pushing more families closer to hunger.

“Disruptions to transportation, fuel rationing, and rising black-market prices are pushing up the cost of moving food,” said Michael Dunford, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) country director in Myanmar.

“This new wave of global instability is hitting Myanmar at the worst possible moment,” Dunford told the ABC.

An estimated 12.4 million people — about one in four — are struggling to find enough to eat. Fuel remains tightly controlled by the military regime.

Private cars can only operate on alternate days based on licence plates, yet shortages persist, and queues stretch for hours. Last week, a man collapsed while waiting in the heat.

“People who survived the earthquake have barely begun to stand again, and now another blow is knocking them back down,” Dunford added.

Community support can’t keep up

Many monasteries have become emergency shelters for people fleeing armed conflict near their homes and affected by the earthquake.

“Almost every monastery was already hosting displaced people,” said Aye Sandar Tun, who was pregnant when the quake struck in Mandalay.

“Finding food is the main challenge for people, so even on weekends, when I am not working, I would drive around and help hard-to-reach areas,” she said.

But as costs rise and donations fall, many are struggling to cope. Many are trying to get by alone.

Myint Myint, a street vendor, set up a samosa stall days after losing her home, but rising prices have kept her reliant on aid.

“It’s a daily cycle of borrowing and scraping by,” she said. Her debts have reached 1.5 million kyats (about $1,030 USD). Despite this, she says others are worse off.

Zin Mar Wai, a displaced mother of three, wants to return to her home in Saigaing’s Wetlet Township, now a conflict zone.

“I just want to go home,” she said. “I had a small grocery shop. I would work twice as hard — but everything has become so much more difficult.

“For now, I just hope food assistance doesn’t stop. There are people hiding in the jungle whose situations are much worse than ours,” she added.

ABC