The 2021 military coup d’état and subsequent upsurge in fighting in Myanmar have caused an unprecedented displacement of civilians, both internally and externally. In western Myanmar’s Chin State, the ‘Spring Revolution’, as the opposition movement to the coup is called locally, began with non-violent protest movements in which women and youth played a disproportionately large and visible role. The Spring Revolution has been notable for combining opposition to the junta, at least rhetorically, with calls for fundamental changes to dominant gender norms and gendered power hierarchies, including increased women’s participation, a questioning of male entitlement, and the advancing of diverse SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity and expressions, and sex characteristics) rights.
As the Myanmar military responded to protests with increasing violence, the opposition movement became more militarised and male-dominated. Women and persons of diverse SOGIESC have also taken up arms, and Chin State was one of the first areas of the country where the crackdown escalated into a full-scale armed conflict.
There are currently around 50–60,000 Myanmar refugees in Mizoram State, Northeastern India, the majority of whom are either from neighbouring Chin State and/or identify as ethnically Chin. Research for this article, conducted in 2024 in Mizoram, sought to capture the experiences of diverse Chin refugee women – based on age, dis-/ability, and marital and SOGIESC status – and their perceptions of changes in gender norms and practices given the calls for greater equality among the anti-junta political movements and the visible participation of diverse SOGIESC persons in the unarmed and armed opposition.
Read the full article, originally published in Development in Practice, here.