HURFOM: On this International Women’s Day, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) wishes to extend our support and appreciation for the women of Burma, who continue to show great strength and resilience during these challenging times. Against the backdrop of the military junta’s deplorable actions, women of all ages and backgrounds have stood tall in the face of adversity, and used their courage to conquer the patriarchal entity that is the Tatmadaw.

No revolution has ever been successful without the participation and leadership of women and girls. This is all the more true in Burma, where hundreds have been killed and thousands detained by the military junta. Despite widespread oppression of their rights and freedoms, women have continued to show their commitment to the Spring Revolution on the frontlines as medics and soldiers with allied opposition forces and through joining various pro-democracy causes such as the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Over the last year, HURFOM has documented a notable increase in the targeting of young women in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region by the junta. Students in particular are regularly abducted for organizing pro-democracy activities and providing moral or monetary support to the various resistance movements. Female students are regularly abducted by the security forces where they face even more risks in junta custody, as the regime has a reputation of sexually harassing and raping women in prison.

As a result of the instability, young people have attempted to flee to neighboring countries but have regularly been denied asylum and sent back to Burma. A majority of them are young women who are being deprived of their fundamental protection rights.

Indiscriminate firing and shelling have also led to violence being deployed against women and resulted in them being killed or injured in the crossfire of violence. There are an estimated 20,000 new internally displaced people in southern Karen and Tanintharyi region, with the majority being women and children. The targeted gendered violence and abduction of young women and girls is symptomatic of a wider problem of impunity, which incites further violations of human rights.

The junta has created systems which shield soldiers from accountability and embodies a deeply flawed entity which lacks moral consciousness and compassion of the harm they are willingly perpetrating. They have also long denied and dismissed the lived experiences and trauma of ethnic women who have been violated by the Burma Army.

HURFOM envisions a future for women in Burma where they are safe from all forms of violence, and are recognized as true equals across all sectors. HURFOM is regularly inspired by the advocates and young women leaders in our community, and we look proudly to their leadership in the current context, and future challenges which lay ahead.

Media Contact
Nai Aue Mon, HURFOM Program Director Email: [email protected]
Signal: +66 86 167 9741

The Human Rights Foundation of Monland was founded by pro-democracy students from the 1988 uprising and more recent activists and Mon community leaders and youths, and its main aim is for the restoration of democracy, human rights and genuine peace in Burma. HURFOM is a non- profit organization and all its members are volunteers who have the same opinion for the same aim. By accepting the main aim, we would like to participate in the struggle for the establishment of a democratic Burma doing our part as a local ethnic human rights group, which is monitoring the human rights situation in Mon territory and other areas in the southern part of Burma.

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