Women’s Low Representation Overlooked in Myanmar Reforms

Zin Mar Aung, a former political prisoner in Myanmar who is now a candidate for the country’s 2015 parliamentary elections and an activist for women’s rights, was in Washington on Tuesday to raise awareness about the continuing underrepresentation of women in the decision-making bodies of Myanmar’s government.

“It is ironic that the face of the Burma democracy movement has been a woman’s face when women in fact have not been allowed to be as central as they need to be in all levels of government,” said Susan Williams, a professor and director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy at the Indiana University School of Law. Myanmar’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, has been led for years by the activist and politician Aung San Suu Kyi. ...