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  1. Shifting the Narrative
  2. 16 Days of Activism
  3. Meet May Sabe Phyu, Burma

Meet May Sabe Phyu, Burma

“Everything is undecided right now, but we have to be hopeful. Without hope, how can we survive?”

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Meet May Sabe Phyu, Burma

May Sabe Phyu is a Kachin social worker and activist from Burma. She is the director of the Gender Equality Network and founded the Kachin Women’s Peace Network and the Kachin Peace Network to promote the rights of Kachin women. She spent the first part of her career as a social worker supporting HIV/AIDS victims.

You started your career as a social worker. What made you decide to take a different career path?

After working as a social worker for a long time, I realized that I wasn’t able to do enough and I wanted to work at the policy level of the state. Working at the community level, we can’t change much without good policies.

What have you learned throughout your involvement in policymaking and politics?

In Burma, we have a lot of priorities in government—and women’s rights and gender equality are not among them. Whenever we are talking about gender equality, policymakers’ responses are, “What are you talking about? Women in Myanmar are enjoying their full rights and there are no gender equality issues in this country.”

You founded the Kachin Women’s Peace Network and the Kachin Peace Network.  Can you tell us more about these networks and why you established them?

Around April 2012, some of the Kachin women who were working in Yangon (Myanmar’s capital) with different non-governmental organizations and I decided that we should do something for women in the internally-displaced person (IDP) camps and in conflict areas. We assembled Kachin Women’s Peace Network, mainly focusing on women, peace and security. Since then, we have visited a number of IDP camps in remote areas, trying to identify women’s needs and advocating for humanitarian organizations to address those needs. Many people living in Yangon at the time were not aware of the challenges faced by thousands of internally-displaced people in Kachin state, so we decided to raise awareness by using media. That’s how the Kachin Peace Network was established.

Can you tell us about the challenges that women activists in Burma face?

When I was a social worker, I didn’t need to worry about myself, or my family. Being an activist, you never know who’s watching you, who is following you. Some people in our country don’t want to see women having a strong voice. Whenever women have a firm stance on their rights, other people will attack them.

You have faced incredible risk—including arrest—for your work. What gives you the strength and courage to continue?

If I hadn’t been arrested, I would never have learned about the judicial system in my country. Whenever I encounter a big challenge, I always try to learn something from it rather than whining and complaining.

LEARN MORE

Visit the Gender Equality Network's website.

Visit the Kachin Peace Network's Facebook page.

Visit the Kachin Women's Peace Network's Facebook page.

 

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16 Days of Activism

November 25, 2022

Afrah Nassar: "Believe that you are worth listening to."

November 25, 2022

Jamila Afghani: “We should extend hands of support to each other."

November 25, 2022

Mèaza Gidey Gebremedhin: “I always need to fight for myself, for my place in this world, and to help others.”

November 25, 2022

A Q&A with democracy activist Khin Ohmar: "I feel at peace knowing there is a young generation fighting for their rights."

November 25, 2022

Amira Osman Hamed: "Don't let them terrify you."

November 25, 2022

Lubna Alkanawati: "What's really helped me to survive is the women's network around me."

November 25, 2022

Nina Potarska, Anna Chernova and Oksana Senyk: "Family peace is a small piece of peacebuilding."

November 25, 2022

Nadia Murad: "We don't get anywhere by pacifying with politeness."

December 10, 2021

Manal Shqair: I’m always fighting every day for my existence as a woman (Palestine)

December 9, 2021

Ounaysa Arabi: Knowledge is power and we have a good inheritance from feminists around the world (Sudan)

December 9, 2021

Ilaf Nasreldin: We as women deserve to live a better life (Sudan)

December 8, 2021

Musu Diamond Kamara: When one woman is affronted, all of us are affronted (Liberia)

More — 16 Days of Activism

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