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Photo Exhibition “Women Out on the Streets for a New Burma”
24 January, 2022 @ 6:30 pm - 11 February, 2022 @ 4:00 pm
Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Feb. 1 coup in Myanmar, the Foreign Correspondence Club of Thailand (FCCT) is hosting the photo exhibition “Women Out on the Streets for a New Burma” from 24 January to 11 February in partnership with SEA Junction.
First displayed by SEA Junction and its partners at BACC in December 2021, the exhibition shows how widespread, diverse and empowering women leadership and participation has been and continue to be in opposition to the military junta. Women have been an integral part of the year-long protest, often being on the frontline of the movement in spite of the danger of being killed, wounded, arrested, tortured and the greater risk of sexual harassment and violence. Women challenge the dictatorship as well as the patriarchal norms, misogyny and sexism rooted at its core. The idea of impurity of women and their relegation to the domestic domain has been confronted by exposing “feminine” attributes in public. For instance, as the exhibition photos show, during protest women proudly carried bras and sanitary pads. Other photos also document the display of women’s drying htamain or longyi (sarong), which traditionally is believed to harm men’s hpon (mystical power), thus lowering the “masculine status of the security force”.
Curated by Lattapol Jirapathomsakul and produced by SEA Junction together with The Myanmar Project Collective, the Women’s League of Burma and Asia Justice and Rights, the exhibition combines photos taken by a dozen of young Burmese journalists who have been covering the protests from all around the country under the umbrella of The Myanmar Project Collective with photos collected by the member institutions of the Women’s League of Burma.
The opening of the exhibition was on 24 February at 6.30 PM, featuring readings by Ma Thida and Ko Ko Thett from the new anthology of protest poetry and essays “Picking Off New Shoots Will Not Stop the Spring, revolutionary and traditional songs performed by Co-Culture Ensemble in collaboration with Burmese music students, as well as Burmese food by Miss Lunatics, chefs of the Myanmar Media Exile Hub.
Prints of the photographic images on exhibit, mounted on foam backing and ready to hang, will be available for sale to support SEA Junction’s activities on Myanmar. The price of A1 size is at 1,000; A2 is at 650; and A3 is at 450.
On Feb.1st at 7 PM, the FCCT will also hold a panel discussion to mark the coup’s first anniversary: “Myanmar, one year on, what next?” (Information to be provided later on the FCCT website)
Please email info@fccthai.com or contact us at southeastasiajunction@gmail.com or phone: +66970024140 for information.
Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT)
The FCCT is Southeast Asia’s oldest press club and a renowned forum for open discourse and debate. Its location is Penthouse Maneeya Center 518/5 Ploenchit Road (connected to the BTS Skytrain Chitlom station) Patumwan, Bangkok. For more information see www.fccthai.com
SEA Junction
SEA Junction, established under the Thai non-profit organization Foundation for Southeast Asia Studies (ForSEA), aims to foster understanding and appreciation of Southeast Asia in all its socio-cultural dimensions, from arts and lifestyles to economy and development. Conveniently located at Room 408 of the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center or BACC (across MBK, BTS National Stadium), SEA Junction facilitates public access to knowledge resources and exchanges among students, practitioners and Southeast Asia lovers. For more information, see www.seajunction.org, join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/1693058870976440/ and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @seajunction
The Myanmar Project Collective
Co-founded by a group of young Burmese journalists and Southeast-Asia correspondent and media teacher Laure Siegel, The Myanmar Project Collective documented street protests and local events in a dozen places across the country from Day 1 after the coup d’Etat. All their portfolios have been published in chronological order by French investigative outlet Mediapart: https://blogs.mediapart.fr/laure-siegel/portfolios Their updated and curated work can be seen and supported on Visual Rebellion, a platform where Burmese photographers, filmmakers and artists can showcase their productions about life and resistance under and against the military regime.
Women’s League of Burma (WLB)
WLB was established in 1999 with the aim of increasing the participation of women in the struggle for democracy and human rights, promoting women’s participation in the national peace and reconciliation process, and enhancing the role of the women of Burma at the national and international level. For more information, see www.womenofburma.org
Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR)
AJAR is a non-profit organization, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, whose aim is to contribute to the strengthening of human rights and the alleviation of entrenched impunity in the Asia-Pacific region. Its work focuses on countries involved in transition from a context of mass human rights violations to democracy, where it strives to build cultures based on accountability, justice and a willingness to learn from the root causes of mass human rights violations to help prevent the recurrence of state-sanctioned human rights violations. For more information, see www.asia-ajar.org.
