Life
With the news cycle in the U.S. currently dominated by the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, it wouldn't be surprising if other major worldwide events were passing you by at this very moment. One humanitarian crisis in particular, happening now in Myanmar, shouldn't be passing you by. The Rohingya people are fleeing northern Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to escape violence from the Burmese military, and feminists need to take notice. The crisis, as with many humanitarian disasters, disproportionately affects women and children, particularly because of the threat of sexual violence. It has also forced the international community to reckon with one of the world's most famous feminist leaders, whose silence on this issue has been deafening.
Here's the lowdown. Rohingya Muslims, who number about 1.1 million, have long been persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, as they're considered stateless people without citizenship. In fact, the Guardian has called them "the world's most persecuted people." Clashes between the Rohingya and the Myanmar military have happened since at least the 1970s, but the current outbreak of violence, sparked by a Rohingya militia group allegedly attacking military outposts and killing 12 police, has led to 310,000 Rohingya fleeing over the border to Bangladesh, with others trapped at the border. Knowing what exactly is happening is tricky for outside observers because of the lack of press or humanitarian aid access allowed in Rakhine State, the area of Myanmar where the Rohingya people are forced to live, by the Burmese authorities. But on Sept. 11, the United Nations' top human rights official Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein declared the Myanmar state's treatment of the Rohingya as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing," following overwhelming reports by refugees that the military are burning Rohingya villages and raiding homes. It's a horrible and terrifying situation, and women worldwide need to be paying attention.
The Nation's Foremost Feminist Leader Isn't Saying Anything
Another reason that the Rohingya crisis should be a big issue for feminists around the world right now, though, is that the country is currently led by a world-renowned feminist leader — whose response to the crisis, according to some, has left a lot to be desired. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for her decades of campaigning for democracy in Myanmar, then Burma, while under house arrest by the government military junta. Suu Kyi was released from detention in 2010 and her party went on to win the country's first free democratic election in 2015; she is seen as the country's de facto leader, though her official title is "state counsellor." In 2014 she commented: "More women's rights means more human rights and a better, happier world for all of us". Despite this, Suu Kyi has not yet directly responded to the humanitarian crisis happening in her own country.
Highly respected peace activists, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Malala Yousafzai and the Dalai Llama, have criticized Suu Kyi for her lack of response to the outbreak of violence. So far, the Burmese leader has said that it is "a little unreasonable" to expect the issue of the Rohingya — who have been an oppressed group in the country for decades — to be solved in 18 months, which is the period since her party took power. She also commented that the government is trying to protect "everybody," adding: "We have to take care of our citizens, we have to take care of everybody who is in our country, whether or not they are our citizens." In March, after the revelation that Rohingya women had told international media about rape and sexual assault at the hands of Burmese military, her official Facebook page was seen to have had the words "fake rape" placed in its banner. She has not explicitly mentioned the Rohingya or visited Rakhine State herself during her time in power. Over 400,000 people have now signed a petition to strip her of her Nobel Peace Prize for not speaking out about the crisis.
Some of the criticism seems to give Suu Kyi power that she doesn't actually have. The former American Ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, told NPR that Suu Kyi actually has no control over the military itself, which is responsible for the violence. Lex Rieffel, an expert on Myanmar politics, at the Brookings Institute, explained to the Financial Times that Suu Kyi "has not yet condemned 'the shameful treatment of the Rohingya Muslims' because to do so would be condemning the overwhelming majority of the people who voted for her party in the 2015 election, and even more the military establishment that has yet to accept civilian supremacy in the country’s quasi-democratic political system." In other words, Suu Kyi is playing a game of three-dimensional chess in a country that widely believes the Rohingya to be stateless security threats, and retains a powerful independent military that doesn't answer to her.
Mark Farmaner, head of a Burmese activist group in the UK, also said that focusing on Suu Kyi "distracts from the military's culpability." But as an international symbol for peaceful democracy and female power, her actions are very disappointing for feminists all over the world. The BBC reports that Burmese diplomats are attempting to prevent the UN Security Council from rebuking the country, rather than working to calm the violence itself. Time will tell what kind of mark her response to the Rohingya crisis leaves on Suu Kyi's legacy as a feminist leader. However, this crisis, and the response to it, show that feminist credentials don't mean that a leader will always do the right thing.
Regardless of what action Suu Kyi chooses to take, Rohingya women need help now. If you want to know what you can do to help, go to Muslim Aid, the al-Mustafa Welfare Trust, or the UNHCR to donate to relief efforts for Rohingya refugees.