Marriage: Is it a Trap for Women?
Have you ever told by someone to get married as soon as you are graduated from high school or university? I asked some of my friends from different countries about this question, and they said “yes” that they were questioned. To classify the answers from my friends, people asked women in the west about marriage question but not in everyday conversation, however when it comes to east, women are asked or told to get married in mostly everyday conversation especially if you are above 20 years old. Despite all of general culture story about male dominating and marriage as we may or may not know, in this article, I would like to share the story and the struggle of being a woman in Myanmar. Therefore it is about “Herstory” of Myanmar. The idea and concept is from my own personal perspective and observation.
Myanmar is one of the highest gender gap countries which stand at 148 out of 188 countries (UNDP, 2015). The culture and tradition of Myanmar encourage male dominating power not only in working places but also in social life. Through the difficult struggle, some women were able to let the world know the hardship of women in Myanmar. For example, the famous political leader of Myanmar, Daw Aung San Su Kyi was awarded Noble Peace Prize in 1992. And Kachin woman journalist, Esther Htu San Awng achieved Pulitzer award in 2016 which is the highest award for journalist in the world. Daw Lahpai Seng Raw (Kachin woman) was awarded Ramon Magsaysay award for human development work. May Sabe Phyu was awarded International Women of Courage for equal rights of women in Myanmar. Moreover, Karen woman, Cynthia Maung was awarded Ramon Magsaysay award (2002) and Sydney peace prize (2013) for free clinic treat to Burmese refugee 150,000 patients a year.
Even young girls try really hard in order to have an equal access and rights with their male friends. The education system in Myanmar would be good example. The choice of university is restricted by high school exam marks, and the demand for medical school is really high (Thin, March 2016). In order to get into medical school, girls’ mark should be higher than the boys (may be at least 30 marks higher).
When the women become popular and famous in the publicity, the society especially narrow-minded men want to criticize and attack the achievement of famous women. Nowadays, girls from my ethnic are very famous in beauty pageant and become very popular. As consequences, these young women received negative criticism both personally and publicly from the community under the critics of “beauty and pageant is useless for country”. In reality, what the beauty pageants did is making the country’s name recognizable in front of the whole world where the men did nothing for the good of the country.
On the other hand, the traditional belief about the difference between male and female after getting marriage in Myanmar is that, the woman became a complete stranger from her family and parents after she got married while the man remain the same person for the family. For example, Myanmar political leader Daw Aung San Su Kyi was married to a British citizen and has two children with him. Myanmar military government did not want her as the country’s leader, therefore they made 2008 Constitution before the country transformed into democracy. According to 2008 constitution, a person who has shown “allegiance to a foreign power” (Wai, July 2015) is disqualified for presidency. This policy is clearly targeted to Daw Aung San Su Kyi who was married to British citizen and has two British Children.
On the other hand, the monogamy law which also known as “Myanmar Buddhist Women Special Marriage Law” (Naing, July 2015) was publicized on August 26 and officially turn into law on August 31 signed by President Thein Sein. This law is made to grow the power influence of Buddhist especially MaBaTha (One of Buddhist Association in Myanmar) in both religious and social boundaries. Moreover, this law covers all the citizens of Myanmar who live in and out of the country. In this year, 2016, on news, there will be new marriage law for female who are under 25 years old. According to the law, a woman needs to be married when she turned 25 years old. If she has not married at 25 years old, then she will be forced to married according to the new law. However, the public have not received any official confirmation concerned with this law.
The new marriage law has made many women in Myanmar felt discriminated, inequality and worthless which make them feel angry. In one interview with a famous woman, she said publicly in the interview that instead of forcing women to get married, educate men first on how to respect women and live their life. Personally, I truly believe that no one should be forced to do the thing that person does not want to do. And we have to respect personal choice.
To conclude, women are used as a way to maintain the hegemonic of male power in the politics. Moreover, women are being oppressed just to control the power of religion and social boundaries of a nation. Lastly, women are most likely a puppet for the policy and decision maker, and they used women as a cover to protect themselves.
References
Naing, N. H. (July, 2015). A trap law for married men and women. Eleven Myanmar. Retrieved from http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/opinion/trap-law-married-men-and-women
Thin, Y. M. S. (March, 2016). Matriculation exams get low marks from students, teacher. Myanmar Times. Retrieved from http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/19583-matriculation-exams-get-low-marks-from-students-teachers.html
United Nations Development Programme (2015). Gender inequality index (GII). Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii.
Wai, M. (July, 2015). Burma’s women are still fighting for their rights. Foreign policy. Retrieved from http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/02/burmas-women-are-still-fighting-for-their-rights-myanmar/
