Charlotte England and Joshua Carroll
At the age of 13, May Lwin was raped by her father. A draft law formulated with the help of civil society takes aim at the country’s culture of sexual violence
 |
| A girl fetches water from a pond on the outskirts of Yangon. A gender equality survey found that almost half of women in Myanmar have experienced rape, sexual assault or harassment. Photograph: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA |
May Lwin’s* brothers and sisters were playing outside their home when her father raped her.
One of her younger brothers heard the commotion as the 13-year-old’s father dragged her back inside the house by her hair after she tried to run away. She made it as far as the washing line in the front yard before she tripped.
Peeking through the palm fronds that made up the walls of the house in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, the young boy witnessed the entire attack.
“He punched me in the head and pulled at my clothes until they tore,” said May Lwin, now 15.
Even though there was an eyewitness to the attack, her father may have got away with it without the help of a local NGO, the Legal Clinic Myanmar.
Instead, he is starting a 10-year prison sentence. The clinic provided a lawyer, pushed slow and often indifferent police investigators to move the case forward, and gave the support May Lwin’s terrified 10-year-old brother needed to testify in court. They even covered transport costs.
“If the clinic hadn’t helped we probably would have had to close the case because we didn’t have enough money for a lawyer,” said May Lwin’s mother, who asked not to be named.
May Lwin’s family fought against huge odds to get their case through Myanmar’s deeply dysfunctional legal system.
According to official figures, sexual assault crimes barely exist in the country of 53 million people; the police recorded just 741 cases in 2014. In contrast, neighbouring Thailand – which itself is thought to have a problem with under-reporting, recorded 32,000 rapes in the same year.
Based in a small, second floor office in a crowded Yangon neighbourhood, Legal Clinic Myanmar’s group of 30 lawyers are among the few people in the country seeking to secure rape convictions in the face of official silence.
“Burmese Women are often too ashamed to report a rape case,” said Hla Hla Yee, a solicitor who founded the clinic in 2011 to offer free legal advice and support to vulnerable people, particularly women. “They also often don’t know anything about the law and how to get justice.”
More often than not, she added, crimes against women are made to disappear: the rape survivor is forced to marry the man who assaulted her, or one family gives money to “compensate”, or pay off, the other.
In 2014, the Gender Equality Network, an umbrella organisation for more than 100 Burmese NGOs and civil society groups including Legal Clinic Myanmar, found that almost half of women surveyed had experienced either non-partner rape, sexual assault, or sexual harassment. Many more had experienced marital rape, which is not against the law in Myanmar. Groping in public spaces was so prevalent it was considered normal.
May Sabe Phyu, the director of Gender Equality Network, said a culture of shame and victim blaming and an inadequate legal framework are preventing women from accessing justice.
“Even if a woman does try to report a sexual assault, she faces enormous barriers,” she said.
“The police, the judge, the lawyers, they are not well trained about gender or violence against women, so usually they are very victim blaming. Like, ‘Why did you go there?’; ‘Why are you alone at night?’ – they ask a lot of questions about how the woman dressed and her behaviour, a lot of questions about the woman’s body, instead of focusing on the perpetrator.”
Women have internalised this culture of victim blaming, said May Sabe Phyu, and feel ashamed when they are assaulted.
May Lwin said that her friends have abandoned her since she was raped, and she has been bullied on the streets by other children her age. “I feel like there’s no future for her,” said her mother.
Over the past five years Legal Clinic Myanmar has given more than 60 training sessions to Burmese people, predominantly women and villagers, on their legal rights.
Helping survivors of violence understand that their attackers are criminals, and encouraging them to press charges, is the first step, said Hla Hla Yee. But Myanmar’s women also need new laws.
“In Myanmar, there is no particular law to protect women, and there is a general lack of rule and order,” she said.
Corruption is rife in the criminal justice system, she added. Even when rapists are prosecuted their sentences vary in length. It is almost impossible to prosecute police officers or members of the military in a civilian court, and marital rape is not considered a crime.
Gender Equality Network has been working with the social welfare ministry to draft a new law aimed at preventing violence against women and criminalising marital rape.
The bill, which will also seek to set a standard minimum sentence for rapists, is now being debated by MPs. Supporters expect the bill to pass, but fear it may be watered down during discussions.
Hla Hla Yee and May Sabe Phyu say they would also like police officers to be trained in how to handle cases of assault sensitively.
Outside the courthouse where he was convicted for raping a child, May Lwin’s father became enraged. As he lunged at his wife and the son who testified against him, a police officer pulled him back by his chains just in time.
Without the help they received securing a conviction, said May Lwin’s mother, the family would still be at his mercy. “We might even be dead.”
* Names have been changed
Additional reporting by Wai Wai Lwin
No comments:
Post a Comment