‘The sense of safety and security for Myanmar women is declining by the day’ – An advocate for abuse survivors speaks out

As International Women’s Day approached in 2025, Moe Thae Say, deputy chair of the civil society group Shield, spoke with Myanmar Now about her organisation’s focus on addressing sexual and gender-based violence, as well as empowering survivors through emergency response, legal support, and rehabilitation.Women and children are among the disadvantaged people—especially the displaced—who have borne the brunt of the bloody civil war that has gripped Myanmar since the military coup of 2021, killing more than 5,000 people and displacing more than 3.5 million.Moreover, due to their vulnerability to targeted gender-based violence and sexual exploitation, women face a double threat amid the conditions of civil war.According to the Burmese Women Union (BWU), airstrikes by the Myanmar military killed 66 women in February of this year alone.To escape persecution and repression after the coup, tens of thousands of refugees and dissidents fled to the Thailand-Myanmar border, the jungle, and “liberated” areas under the control of resistance or ethnic armed groups. However, for women the sometimes deeper, more pervasive repression of patriarchal tradition in Myanmar often proved harder to outrun.Moe Thae Say’s interview with Myanmar Now delved into the experiences of Myanmar women inside the country as well as in exile.MN: How and why was Shield founded? Moe Thae Say: Our group is not long-established. Let me explain a bit about our background: Ma Htake Htar, the chair of our group, was the one who spearheaded the activism work by herself in the beginning, closely following and documenting the sexual abuse cases of women victims on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Ma Htake Htar was working on these issues all alone when she realised there was an urgent need to form an organisation to further and strengthen the work along with other like-minded women to bring about effective outcomes. After starting the work of holding meetings and drafting the group’s internal constitution in November 2024, Ma Htake Htar enlisted the help of a few of her collaborating partners to found the group in February 2025. The group is called Shield and specialises in tracking the cases of women in exile, in situations where most victims of mistreatment or assault have no means to seek justice other than being willing to speak out publicly. The group is member-led and makes its operating decisions based on members’ votes. MN: Regarding Ma Htake Htar’s previous work, could you tell us what cases she has followed? MTS: Ma Thaik Htar had been following cases of domestic abuse and gender-based violence against women specifically in border areas, in the jungle, and in liberated areas where they fled seeking safety and trying to escape persecution by the junta for their work supporting the revolution. With their safety constantly at risk—in border areas, in the jungles, and in liberated areas—women lack support from their families, parents, or siblings and increasingly become victims of domestic violence, gender-based violence, and sexual abuse. MN: How many cases has Shield resolved or helped with? MTS: Since the group’s inception in January, Shield has received six cases. One of the cases that Shield helped resolve concerned an ex-husband who was blackmailing his ex-wife, threatening to expose her photos online. MN: What is the most common circumstance in which women face abuse and who are the abusers?MTS: The abusers vary in every aspect. They may be civilians or belong to revolutionary groups. Fleeing their homes and living away from their families after the military coup, there are women living in the jungle and border areas who have to endure this abuse nearly everywhere. There are two categories of women, based in two kinds of areas: those living in places controlled by ethnic armed groups or resistance groups, and those living under the junta’s administration. If the people we’re helping face such abuse, we cannot go through the junta’s judiciary. Our Shield members have come from within revolutionary families during the revolutionary period. These are women fighting against the military dictatorship, which is why they cannot be granted justice under the junta administration. Women undergo training after enlisting in the Mandalay People’s Defence Forces in 2024 (MDY-PDF) (Photo: MDY-PDF) There is a resistance government in exile, but when it comes to governance and judicial matters, women faced with abuse are not protected by laws.Besides, many women fleeing junta persecution become easy targets for predators who can threaten to report or deliver them to the junta. For abusers who want to control women, threats like these are readily at hand to use against fleeing women. Therefore, both domestically and internationally, the women in that situation are suffering silently.In one case, the perpetrator was closely linked with junta generals and leveraged his connection to exploit women by threatening to expose their use of social media or sexual history, and there was nothing the women could do.Some perpetrators secretly recorded or photographed the women sleeping with them without their consent, then leaked the videos and pictures to Telegram groups. This kind of abuse is the effect of a dictatorship that leaves women without recourse or options. Regardless, we have to speak out for truth and justice. It is not us who should be ashamed, but the preparators.MN: How do you approach solving those problems?MTS: We hear and represent the voices of the victims. We first hear what they need and how they want to resolve their problems. Some victim women do not want to go through court but instead just want to keep a record to deter the perpetrators from continuing the abuse. Some women victims want to take their abusers to court.However, we also listen to both sides—the women claiming abuse and the alleged perpetrators—to strike a balance. Based on our assessment of the credibility of the case, we decide to help victims as they wish, whether that means suing the perpetrators to hold them accountable or making it possible to call them out on social media.MN: What are your biggest challenges in handling these cases?MTS: We face our biggest challenges in knowing how to take action. In some cases, we want to act by filing the cases in the appropriate departments wherever we are; for example, in Thailand. Or in some cases, we want to file cases and have the perpetrators held by resistance authorities. But then we’re sometimes not able to do anything when perpetrators run away, escaping accountability.Most importantly, the cases that arise inside Myanmar, including in resistance-held areas, present far more of a challenge for seeking justice. Inside the country, women cannot file reports of abuse at the police stations or courts in places under junta administration. We always face difficulties in handling those situations, however we try to reach out to groups that are handling the cases inside Myanmar.After all, not getting a just result is one of our biggest challenges in addition to threats from the perpetrators for doing the work we do.MN: After cases are resolved, how does Shield help women victims cope with the subsequent recovery process?MTS: Our mechanism for resolution is for either victim or someone acting on behalf of the victim to report the abuse to us. We keep records of the cases for reference and data analysis. On top of that, we provide safe houses and mental health support if needed through counselling from psychiatrists. In addition to providing these safe houses and mental health support, we also aim to support them with a rehabilitation process.MN: How do you describe the sense of safety and security for Myanmar women following the coup?MTS: In general, the sense of safety and security for Myanmar women is declining by the day. Those women inside Myanmar under the dictatorship are suffering on many levels, while women who have escaped face a severe lack of support and protection. They do not have families to support them or the law to protect them. Thus, we all are facing a declining sense of safety and security, that’s the ugly truth for us. Previously, under the democratic government, Myanmar women not only could celebrate International Women’s Day widely but also had the freedom to appeal for equality and respect for their rights. But following the February coup in 2021—from which we’re now entering the fifth year—both women and men, not to mention children, pregnant women, LGBTQ people regardless of gender, are leading dangerous lives under the junta. So, beyond any discussion of equal rights for women, now even abuse against women is commonplace.MN: Finally, what do you want to say on the International Women’s Day on behalf of the women of Myanmar?MTS: Those who escaped overseas can celebrate International Women’s Day. But women in Myanmar cannot celebrate, or give it any of their attention at all, as they are going through far more urgent and overwhelming situations in their daily lives.

‘The sense of safety and security for Myanmar women is declining by the day’ – An advocate for abuse survivors speaks out

The deputy chair of the newly founded Shield organisation told Myanmar Now about the challenges in fulfilling the group’s mission: providing legal, mental health, and other support for Myanmar women who have faced abuse

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