Written by: Kathryn Aung
Feature Photo:
A female police officer who fled Myanmar after the military coup in 2021 checks a mobile phone at an undisclosed location in India on the border with Myanmar.
Credit: Anupam Nath/AP
The International Women’s Day of 2023 aims to highlight the effects of the gender gap in the digital sphere on socioeconomic inequalities as well as the importance of protecting women from online gender-based violence. This topic is especially relevant for the women of Burma who face both digital exclusion and online sexual violence due to systemic inequalities and political repression. According to a 2017 report by IREX on the gender digital divide in Burma, women are 28 percent less likely than their male counterparts to own a mobile phone, causing many women restricted access to the internet. The report concludes that this gender gap is systemic as women and girls have fewer opportunities to develop digital skills as men dominate the public spaces for digital access. This gap has widespread implications for gender equality and women’s ability to participate in political discourse in a digital world.
Despite these structural constraints to digital inclusion, women have been at the forefront of resistance against the military regime and its coup in 2021 (as our blog covered last year). For instance, Ei Thinzar Maung is the youngest candidate for MP and has used her social media platform, with more than 360,000 followers, to rally for protests. Writer Ei Pencilo also led pro-democracy campaigns on her social media account with 1.6 million followers to mobilize for demonstrations while fleeing arrest from the junta. The regime revoked both Ei Thinzar Maung and Ei Pencilo’s citizenship in retaliation for their social media activism. Social media campaigns such as #Sisters2sisters highlight the use of excessive force and violence against women perpetrated by junta troops. Red Lips Speak Truth to Power is another online campaign that raises awareness of sexual violence against women as a weapon of war, underscoring how digital inclusion can empower women to advocate for themselves.
Red Lips Speak Truth to Power Campaign Poster
Photo Cred: Sisters2Sisters
Speaking out against the regime on social media has come at a high cost for women as they face threats of rape, violence, and death from pro-military supporters, as evident in research from Myanmar Witness and Sisters2sisters. The organizations’ quantitative analysis of 1.6 million Telegram posts found that politically motivated online abuse of women was at least five times more prevalent at the end of 2022 compared to the weeks following the coup. In the study sample, 8,338 Telegram posts targeted women with hateful rhetoric, in addition to 15,000 doxxing posts, often directed towards women for having a positive opinion on the PDF or NUG. 28 percent of these doxxing posts explicitly call for the punishment of women offline through arrests and property seizures. Digital violence and doxxing have a “silencing effect and cause women to retreat from public life,” as victims report severe emotional and psychological impacts. These effects surpass the digital sphere as women self-censor themselves from public discourse offline.
Digital equality has the power to equip women with skills and resources that can bridge the gender pay gap and support Burma’s economic growth and democratization. In the wake of the coup, women have embraced social media platforms to oppose the regime, demonstrating its power to enable women’s freedom of self-expression and political participation. The violent backlash and vitriol against women on these platforms can be especially detrimental by barring access to the internet and silencing women from the public sphere altogether. We must take cyberbullying and online violence seriously to close the digital gender gap. Social media platforms must effectively enforce their terms and conditions and content moderation to prevent online violence against women.
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