Myanmar

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said April 15 that her country needs more women in politics to reverse the value system that produced decades of military rule in her native Myanmar. The Nobel laureate and head of the National League for Democracy made the remark during a lecture at Kyoto University, where she studied as a researcher between 1985 and 1986. Suu Kyi, who spe

Myanmar's Nobel Prize-winning pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced new charges Thursday less than two weeks before her house arrest was due to end after an American man swam across a lake and entered her home, her lawyer said.Supporters accused the military government of using the incident to keep her in detention ahead of general elections scheduled next year.
To read the full article, please visit The Huffington Post's website

Myanmar's military government said Thursday that its trial of Aung San Suu Kyi would have no political impact, though many have criticized the proceedings as a ploy to sideline the pro-democracy leader during elections scheduled for 2010.
To read the full article please visit Yahoo News Website.

Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy party is planning to expand its central women’s working group following recent changes to other core sections of the party.Last week the National League for Democracy (NLD) reorganised its information committee and appointed new public relations staff. The move followed the recent expansion of its central youth wing.
To read the complete article please visit Democratic Voice of Burma website.

The lawyer for Myanmar’s jailed pro-democracy leader says he and his team have been denied access to her, two days before her trial on charges of breaking the terms of her house arrest is due to resume.Her legal team are expected to present closing arguments in the case on Friday, with a verdict expected shortly afterwards.If convicted she faces up to five years in jail.
To read the complete article please visit BurmaNet News website.

In military-ruled Burma’s Karen state, tradition and a male-dominated social order have long guaranteed men the role of village chiefs. But this order is crumbling in the country’s eastern region, giving rise to the new phenomenon of women village chiefs.
To read the complete news story please visit IPS News.

An outside observer of Burmese politics might assume women in Burma have made progress towards equality in a way that hasn't happened in many countries. Aung San Suu Kyi, the general secretary of the National League for Democracy, for example, leads the democracy movement, and she's one of the most admired politicians in the world. Many other leading voices of the democracy movement are women. But on this International Women's Day, it would be wrong to conclude from these examples that women in Burma have achieved some level of equality.