WHEN:
Friday, February 17, 2023, 10:30 a.m. Bangkok Time / 10 a.m. Yangon Time / 10:30 p.m. U.S. EST (February 16)
WHERE:
The Fort, Bangkok and Live on The Fort’s Facebook Page
Women in Myanmar are crucial to the success of the ongoing revolution, according to a groundbreaking new book by feminist scholars and human rights defenders from Myanmar and beyond. The military coup d’état in Myanmar in 2021 represents an attempt to restore a masculinized military dictatorship, and it has been met with widespread popular resistance.
The Fort, a space in central Bangkok for changemakers in Southeast Asia, will host the launch of the new book, Waves of Upheaval in Myanmar: Gender Transformations and Political Transitions, a volume edited by Jenny Hedström and Elisabeth Olivius and including the work of feminist scholars from Myanmar and beyond. The 290-page book is published by Nias Press and will be distributed by Silkworm Books in Southeast Asia and Hawaii University Press in North America. The book offers a deeper understanding of the current political situation in Myanmar and Southeast Asia and of the ways in which the country's political landscape might continue to be reshaped. It is the first-ever edited volume of feminist voices in Myanmar.
A panel of distinguished speakers will introduce the book and discuss its findings and relevance to current events in Myanmar. The book will be available for purchase at the event.
Opening Remarks:
Karl Backéus, Minister Counsellor, Head of Section Office, Embassy of Sweden, Section Office Yangon
Speakers at the event will include:
Jenny Hedström, Associate Professor in War Studies at Swedish Defence University (editor)
Elisabeth Olivius, Associate Professor in Political Science at Umeå University (editor)
Zin Mar Phyo, citizen journalist and women’s rights activists (author)
Jana Naujoks, freelance gender, conflict and peacebuilding advisor and a former Country Director for International Alert Myanmar (author)
Dan Seng Lawn, Director of Kachinland Research Center (author)
Debbie Stothard, Founder of ALTSEAN-Burma, board member of the global feminist organization AWID and former Secretary-General of FIDH (discussant)
Thinzar Shunlei Yi, democracy and human rights activist, executive member of Peoples’ Goal and founder of the Sisters2Sisters Campaign (discussant)
Nang Moet Moet, Secretary General of the Women’s League of Burma (discussant)
Moderator
Puttanee Kangkun, The Fort Director