A Burmese woman on womens status in her country, written in 1958. For centuries —even before recorded history —Burmese women have accepted as their right a high measure of independence. The Buddhist and the Hindu influences that came to our country at a somewhat later date may have modified the social status of women, but we have always retained our legal and economic rights. In my own research work in the village system of Burma I have even found vestiges of a matriarchal system which must have flourished here at one time. The inheritance of certain oil wells, for instance, belonged exclusively to women; in some cases the inheritance to the headmanship of a village was through the female line. To this day we have no family surnames in Burma and a woman keeps her own name after marriage. Our more recent history has done little to diminish our ancient rights. During the days of the Burmese kings, women were frequently appointed to high office and became leaders of a village, chieftainess, and even ruled as queen. And in a series of Burmese folk tales concerning wise and remarkable decisions in law, which have been collected by Dr. Htin Aung, the judge in each of the stories is a woman called Princess Learned-in-the-Law. All these fields of administration, government service, law, medicine or business are always open to any Burmese woman who wishes to enter them. theatlantic/magazine/archive/1958/02/the-women-of-burma/306822/
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 17:18:01 +0000
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