BURMESE WOMEN SHOULD BE "PROUD"

March 4, 2005 - (IPS) Burmese women enjoy the same rights as men, according to the military regime. “Myanmar [Burmese] women can be proud to be citizens of Myanmar, as throughout the nation’s history they have been enjoying rights equally with men,” the state-run New Light of Myanmar quoted Prime Minister Lt-Gen Soe Win Friday.
 
He was commenting on Thursday’s meeting in Rangoon of the Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation, led mainly by wives of high-ranking military officers. “They have a golden opportunity to play an important role in tasks, sharing the same status as men in developing families of their own, society, the motherland and the people,” said Soe Win.
 
However, a different slant on the role of women in Burma was given by an exiled organization the Women’s League of Burma, or WLB. “Actually, it’s totally impossible for Burmese women to enjoy their rights in a country where there aren’t any human rights,” said WLB secretary Nang Yain. She was commenting on Soe Win’s remarks.
 
She added that she thought it was simply an attempt to respond to international criticism of the regime’s human rights record.
 
The latest condemnation of rights abuses in Burma was in the United States State Department’s annual report on the state of human rights worldwide on February 28. The military regime rejected the US report, saying it was “a politically-motivated attempt to maintain pressure on Myanmar and to interfere in its domestic affairs.”

Taken from: http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=4443&z=153