Gendered impact of the Myanmar coup on free expression

The report is based on desk research, key informant interviews, and several datasets documenting specific forms of human rights violations. The content of the report is framed by international human rights standards. It focuses on the experiences of women and girls at the hands of the military only. Further time, resources, and space would be necessary to expand the scope to cover other perpetrators,¹ other gender minorities,² and intersectional discrimination.³

The report was submitted to the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Myanmar in response to their call for information.

Aggravating factors

Women and girls challenging the coup and asserting their rights face violations that are aggravated because of their gender. Aggravating factors change and may worsen the nature of human rights violations, their likelihood, and the impact. There are three key aggravating factors in Myanmar that have each grown since the military coup started in February 2021.

Patriarchy

Patriarchal beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviours that dominate Myanmar society, politics, the economy, education, culture, and the legal system aggravate human rights violations by adding a layer of overt and concealed gender-based discrimination.⁴ Even when they face the same oppression as men, women and girls’ patriarchal gender-based exclusion from power and privilege, strict social roles, and widespread discriminatory policies and practices, ensure that it is harder for them to assert their human rights. Women and girls need protecting – or rather controlling – by their families, community, and the State. Any who think, express themselves, or behave in a manner that threatens the patriarchy are accused of undermining Myanmar’s “traditional values”, promoting “westernisation”, hating men, or being mentally unstable. The military’s seizure of power has magnified the patriarchy, not least because there are very few women in the military.

Militarisation

The military’s decades-long process of engraining military values, behaviours, and institutions into Myanmar’s civilian ecosystem, has “militarised” society, politics, the economy, education, and the legal system, emphasising the patriarchy, prioritising security, and promoting the use of force. Militarisation is an aggravating factor because it increases the risks associated with women and girls asserting their rights. Any women or girls who think, express themselves, or behave in a manner that may directly or inadvertently undermine Myanmar’s patriarchy are “undisciplined”. In the worst cases they are a threat to public order, controlled by foreign colonial powers, and “traitors”. Any threat regardless of severity may legitimately be dealt with using force, either by the State, community, or family.

Extremism

Extremism promotes discriminatory and patriarchal religious and ethno-nationalist values and behaviours. Myanmar has extreme Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim groups, some of which have been intentionally encouraged by the military after the 2021 coup to promote communal conflict in a strategy of divide-and-rule. Extremism is an aggravating factor because it ethically and morally justifies and legitimises the oppression of women and girls when they assert their rights. Any women or girls who think, express themselves, or behave in a manner that may directly or inadvertently undermine Myanmar’s patriarchy are “against” religion. They are “bad” wives and mothers, “immoral” daughters and sisters, and bring “shame” upon their communities. Extremism conceals oppression under religious doctrine.

Attacks on life, bodily, and mental integrity

Women and girls challenging the coup and asserting their rights have faced the military’s unlawful, unnecessary, and disproportionate use of force. 

The military has subjected at least 680 women and girls to extra-judicial, summary, or arbitrary killing.⁵ There is sufficient prima facie information to indicate that at least 140 of the 680 individuals (21%) were directly subject to targeted acts of violence rather than indirect so-called “collateral damage”. For example, at least 27 of the 140 individuals were killed while exercising their right to protest against the coup (19%). The 140 targeted women and girls came from diverse backgrounds. They included students, political activists, civil society employees, writers, and teachers and nurses involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). A significant minority were children under the age of 18 (14%), with the rest spread across age groups 18-29 (29%), 30-49 (32%), and 50-87 (25%).

The scale of the military’s killings dominates headlines while overshadowing a similar but largely undocumented increase in the use of non-lethal force against women and girls. This includes public beatings as well as torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman treatment while being held under detention. There were many examples of the use of non-lethal force against women and girls participating in protests and the Civil Disobedience Movement.

The military’s use of force is often gender-based. Lethal and non-lethal force used against women and girls asserting their rights often involves sexual violence including in the worst cases different forms of rape, sexual assault, and the mutilation of bodies. Humiliating practices with sexual connotations are common. The military also systematically threatens women and girls with sexual violence both directly and by insinuation. Threats involve pervasive intimidation and harassment. There is insufficient monitoring of gender-based use of force.

The military’s gender-based use of force has severe impacts on women and girls’ mental health and wellbeing. The consistent fear of the military’s arbitrary use of sexual violence is compounded for those women and girls who are asserting their rights and therefore risk targeted reprisals. This completely rational fear is ingrained into women and girls’ psyche. The mere possibility or the slightest implied threat of force is a powerful and debilitating threat. Constant fear and stress contribute to heightened anxiety, depression, and burnout. The limitations on freedom of expression exacerbate the psychological toll, as women and girls navigate an environment of hostility.

Deprivation of liberty and legal attacks

Women and girls challenging the coup and asserting their rights are faced with detention, prosecution, and lengthy terms of imprisonment. At least 5,100 women and girls have been detained since the coup started.⁸ Of these, at least half have been charged with a crime (46%), including those in various stages of trial (21%) and those already convicted (25%). The remaining half have not been charged and it is unclear whether they will be in future (54%). 

Almost all of the 1,291 women and girls who have been convicted by the military since the coup have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Half have received comparatively short sentences up to three years (44%). A quarter have received sentences of four to nine years (24%). Another quarter have received extremely disproportionate sentences of over 10 years imprisonment (27%). A staggering 68 women have received sentences longer that 20 years, with the longest being 62 years imprisonment. At least a further 16 women, the youngest aged 25 and the oldest 55 years, were sitting on death row after being sentenced to death by the military. The women were convicted either under Penal Code (1861) Article 302 for the offence of murder, or under Counter-Terrorism Law (2014) Article 54 for the offence of causing death or serious injury.

Of the 1,291 women and girls convicted, approximately half were convicted under laws that directly and illegitimately restrict the right to freedom of expression (50%). For example, 16 women journalists were convicted under laws criminalising their journalism, with nine in detention at the end of December 2023. The remaining half were convicted under other laws, many of which may have been arbitrary punishment for challenging the coup and asserting their rights. The law restricting expression that was most commonly used against women and girls was Penal Code (1861) Article 505A. This broad, vague provision was “adopted” shortly after the coup started as an easy catch-all that could be used to criminalize almost any form of expression without the need to fulfil the requirements of prosecutions under other laws.¹⁰ Article 505A also has a maximum sentence of three years, longer than the two years included in some other provisions used against journalists before. Article 505A includes three sub-clauses on “causing fear”, “false news”, and “agitation” but it is unclear which was most used against women and girls because court records are inaccessible and media reports are unspecific.  

The law and the military’s application of it is often gender-based. Many laws emphasise protection – or control – of women and girls, including laws on sexual relationships, marital choices, and dress. At the same time, they fail to adequately criminalise human rights violations specifically affecting women and girls, including rape, sexual assault and harassment, stalking and privacy invasions, and domestic and intimate partner violence. Women and girls face gender-based human rights violations right from being detained. The military often sends men to detain women and then keep them alone, threatening gender-based violence including sexual violence. In the past, women have been taken to be incarcerated in psychiatric institutions rather than being taken through the normal criminal process. 

Women and especially girls tend to lack experience, official language skills, and support networks with which to interact with public officials or the military. Women and girls face questioning relating to whether they can really act on their own agency, with autonomy, or are traitors serving others. They are treated as working against social norms by going outside the private home, travelling alone, and interacting with men. They are accused of voluntarily placing themselves at risk of violence, while at the same time ignoring their domestic duties. The military has often imprisoned women’s children with the aim of shaming them into submission and confession.

Attacks on the person

Women and girls challenging the coup and asserting their rights are consistently subjected to attacks on their person, including violations of their rights to personhood, to privacy, and to a reputation.¹² The number of such attacks has multiplied by 500% since the coup started in 2021.¹³ Men have rarely faced such attacks from the military except for blatantly wild allegations usually spread to excuse clearly illegitimate detentions or killings.

Attacks on the person are often carried out online and often perpetuated by clandestine agents or allies of the military. Some attacks are also carried in the military-controlled media. Perpetrators actively try to violate women and girls’ right to a reputation by shaming and humiliating them before their families, communities, and society as a whole. This includes deliberate smears often consisting of claims about a failure to conform to strict gender-based roles and allegations of a lack of sexual integrity. Smears can include distribution of knowingly false information intended to harm such as doctored imagery of a sexual or intimate nature, sometimes followed by blackmail or extortion. Women and girls asserting their rights are labelled as morally corrupt, racially “impure”, “bad” women, “women of low morality”, “man-haters”, “extremists”, “prostitutes”, “lesbians”, “anti-Buddhist”, “Western”, or “shaming” Myanmar. Many such smears are made on Facebook and Telegram.

Attacks on the person often involve a violation of the right to privacy. Women and girls are subject to surveillance and communications interception. Offline this can include home and office raids, either by the police or staged as common burglary, as well as mobile phone robbery or confiscation. Online this can include cyber-stalking, phishing, and hacking. The perpetrators’ intention is often to extract women and girls’ personal information, including photos and videos of an intimate or sexual nature with which to threaten, blackmail or distribute.

Women and girls’ right to personhood was already under significant threat before the coup started. Women and girls are not regarded in Myanmar law as individuals to the extent that men are, and their rights are limited by alleged societal interests.¹⁵ Social values and attitudes also reflect this, and women and girls are not regarded as autonomous even within their workplace. The military uses this to its advantage by smearing women and girls’ reputations knowing that in doing so, it will galvanise families, employers, and communities to protect – or control – women and girls, co-opting society into the military’s oppression. 

Attacks on information and advocacy

The military’s attacks on women and girls silence their advocacy efforts, curtailing their ability to articulate their specific concerns, advocate for equal rights, and challenge societal prejudices, contributing to an environment where discrimination goes unchallenged. The number of public reports documenting women’s rights violations has significantly declined since the coup started, and the few that remain focus on a narrow range of the most egregious challenges.¹⁶ The scarcity of advocacy interventions curtails their effectiveness, stifles the dissemination of crucial information, and limits the potential to influence change. The few examples of advocacy that continue in public attract heightened scrutiny from the military wanting to oppress all dissent. 

The military’s attacks also silence women and girls within the media, contributing to the reduced visibility of gender-related concerns, under-reporting of those concerns, and creating a misleading picture of both prevalence and importance. The number of articles published by media outlets and focused on the experiences of women and girls has declined since the coup started in 2021.¹⁷ Most coverage is focused on the conflict and most portray women and girls as victims. Such a limited focus has erased diverse identities and reinforced simple stereotypes. More in-depth and investigative journalism focused on women and girls has largely disappeared altogether, hampering efforts to uncover and expose gender-based human rights violations. Women sources and whistleblowers are too fearful of reprisals to share their concerns. 

Conclusion

The gender-based violation of the rights of women and girls challenging the coup and asserting their rights has far-reaching consequences. The overall effect of the use of force, prosecution, attacks on the person, and reductions in information and advocacy is a silencing of women and girls’ voices, depriving the public of diverse perspectives and perpetuating an environment where human rights violations remain unaddressed, contributing to a culture of impunity and systemic injustices. Although the military is the main source of such violations, they are not the only source. Since the coup, political, media, and civil society leaders have on occasion repeated the same message, that women’s rights are not a priority, gender-based violations are not the worst, and they will only be addressed after the coup is ended and democratisation restored.¹⁸

The risk is that the culture of impunity for gender-based violations is left to grow. The silencing of women and girls means less demand for accountability from institutions and individuals, including the military itself. The development and implementation of progressive policies and programmes are curtailed. Women and girls are left without supporter networks, capacity, and resources. Existing gender inequalities in education, work, reproductive health, political participation, and economic empowerment are exacerbated.

Recommendations

• A future legitimate government must develop in consultation with stakeholders a robust, ambitious but achievable, specific and timebound, plan for addressing gender-based discrimination in civil and political rights, including discrimination engrained in public values, attitudes, and behaviours. The plan should include capacity building of government employees as well as strong mechanisms to address gender-based human rights violations past and future. Perpetrators should be investigated and investigations should hold perpetrators to account. 
• Civil society, including media, religious authorities, community leaders, educationalists, social influencers, healthcare workers, and political activists should commit to challenging gender-based discrimination engrained in public values, attitudes, and behaviours.
• The international community should support and strengthen civil society and inter-governmental mechanisms to monitor, assess and report on gender-based human rights violations, with a view to ensuring accountability and justice. All international mechanisms, including future judicial processes should prioritise setting precedents to protect gender minorities.
• Social media businesses, including Telegram and Facebook, should design and proactively implement holistic due diligence plans to address gender-based discrimination and promote marginalised voices on their platforms in line with international human rights standards.
• Donors, supporters, and other stakeholders should ensure that all beneficiaries factor in gender-based assessments and measurable anti-discrimination objectives into their work that encourage dialogue and advocacy initiatives to amplify marginalised voices, promoting inclusivity and respect for diversity.

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Footnotes

^[1] Other perpetrators of gender-based human rights violations in Myanmar may include foreign governments and armed groups.

^[2] Other gender minorities would include transgender and non-binary persons.

^[3] Intersectional discrimination includes the compounded challenges faced by women and girls who are also members of other marginalised groups including ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, persons with disabilities, and socioeconomically excluded persons.

^[4] UN Women (2023), “UN Women Myanmar Country Profile”.

^[5] For more information see data published by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, www.aappb.org.

^[6] Her name has been anonymised to protect her family from military reprisals. The image has been created using AI.

^[7] Her name has been anonymised to protect her family from military reprisals. The image has been created using AI.

^[8] For more information see data published by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, www.aappb.org.

^[9] Her name has been anonymised to protect her and her family from military reprisals. The image has been created using AI.

^[10] Free Expression Myanmar (2022), “505A: Act of revenge”.

^[11] Her name has not been anonymised because her case has been widely covered by the media and civil society organisations. The image has been created using AI.

^[12] The right to personhood includes the right to be recognised as an individual distinct from a family or community.

^[13] Centre for Information Resilience (2023), “Digital Battlegrounds”.

^[14] Her name has been anonymised to protect her and her family from military reprisals. The image has been created using AI.

^[15] For example, the Population Control Law (2015), Religious Conversion Law (2015), Interfaith Marriage Law (2015), and Monogamy Law (2015).

^[16] Some reports are circulated to limited stakeholders but remain unpublished to protect the security and anonymity of their authors.

^[17] Unpublished media monitoring report focused on gender by a media development INGO.

^[18] Leaders often express this when challenged to consider gender-related concerns.