By Shah Paung
The ongoing militarization of Karen State by Burma’s Tatmadaw, or armed forces, has redefined the role of women in Karen communities as they accept greater leadership roles and adopt new strategies of resistance, a new report by a Karen rights group says.
The Thailand-based Karen Human Rights Group’s Dignity in the Shadow of Oppression: The Abuse and Agency of Karen Women under Militarisation, released on Wednesday, examines not only the many examples of targeted abuse against women—particularly rape—by Burmese soldiers, but how the oppression of Karen communities in general has reshaped the social and political roles of women.
Based on interviews with villagers affected by the Burmese junta’s relentless “anti-insurgency” campaign against ethnic Karen rebel forces, the report documents numerous cases of killings, rape, the destruction of villages and crops, and the continued dislocation of civilian villagers, who have fled in increasing numbers towards the Thai-Burmese border since the latest offensive intensified earlier this year.
The report also highlights the ways in which Karen women have responded to the violence in Karen State, while trying to avoid what it calls “the stereotype of ‘women in armed conflict’ which depicts them as the superlative victims, lacking both the knowledge and means to address their own needs.”
As the report’s preface states, “recognition of Karen women living under militarization as not only victims of abuse, but also agents of change, allows for the inclusion of their voices in external decision making fora and the development of more appropriate policies of support.”
“Women are becoming village heads, as men are [increasingly] forced to work as porters or are tortured and killed,” KHRG spokesperson Naw Gale told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
In addition to new leadership roles, Karen women have also taken active roles in resisting the demands of junta soldiers on local villages.
Women village heads frequently refuse to send villagers for forced labor or supplies demanded by the military. They also hide their food stores from looting soldiers and have even established secret jungle markets to by-pass the junta’s trade blockades on local villages, she said.
Nevertheless, the threat of violence against women remains severe. “We don’t dare to oppose them [Burmese military] because we live near to them and we have no way to escape,” a woman in Papun District was quoted as saying in the KHRG report. “We must do loh ah pay [volunteer work] and pay them money when they demand [it from] us.”
Attacks targeting Karen women are part of a larger plan to compel villagers in ethnic areas to submit to the military government’s control, according to Naw Gale.
“The military is raping, torturing and killing unarmed Karen women in Burma and burning their houses and fields so that they will be starved into submission,” she said.
The release of Dignity in the Shadow of Oppression this month was timed to coincide with the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25.
