Fiona MacGregor
The Myanmar Times
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Past articles by Fiona:
Don’t blame girls for boys’ academic struggles
It has been uplifting and inspiring to see the many strong stories about women in the media this week in the lead-up to International Women’s Day. → Read More
NLD big-wigs missing as presidency day finally arrives
The name of the man set to be Myanmar’s new president was finally revealed in parliament today - though neither he, nor the woman who has declared she will be above him, was present when the nominations the country has been waiting for four months were finally read out in the Pyithu Hluttaw chamber. → Read More
New technology calls up old inequalities
A Report out this week on mobile phone ownership in Myanmar highlighted how the country’s rapid modernisation can magnify gender inequalities as well as help address them. → Read More
Don’t treat girls and women as baby-making commodities
I would like to dedicate this week’s column to The Global New Light of Myanmar. The state newspaper has abandoned all superficial attempts to recognise that women are equal citizens and clarified exactly what it really thinks their role is: economic baby makers. → Read More
‘Nationwide’ pact turns into disaster
The surge in fighting in northern Shan State in recent weeks has highlighted what a disaster the nationwide ceasefire agreement has been. International organisations who supported it must answer questions about their role, but right now urgent help is required for those suffering the consequences. → Read More
Two freed, but countless others still enslaved by armed groups
Two young women who were the focus of a Myanmar Times investigation this month into mass abductions of civilians by ethnic armed groups have been freed by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). → Read More
Childcare: a man’s responsibility, too
This month brought some positive news for women with children. The vastly outdated law on child support has been changed so that fathers who have separated from their wives and children are now liable to pay K50,000 each month per child. → Read More
Empty villages stand testimony to ever-more-bitter ethnic conflict
The village near Kutkai in northern Shan State is eerily quiet, except for the plaintive, unanswered wails of a tiny child crouched outside a fence surrounding a wooden stilt house. As the assistant village head later explains, “Half the population has left in the last two months. There are no men left here aged under 40.” → Read More
More fighting and more abductions: Northern Shan villages robbed of children
As they put on their new dresses and checked their make-up, Nang Kyan Khan and Nang Htwe Yin were excited about the festival ahead. At 7pm on December 28 the two pre-school teachers said goodbye to their families in remote Mong Paine village and left in a taxi – a rare treat – which the fun-loving 20-year-olds had hired to take them over the rough tracks of northern Shan and into neighbouring… → Read More
Day 1: NLD takes its parliamentary seats
It had been a long wait: almost three months since the election that swept Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy to victory, but also decades of being kept on the sidelines by military control. Finally Myanmar’s NLD MPs took their seats in parliament as the ruling party. → Read More
Parliamentary sketchbook: the NLD takes their seats
After decades of waiting, finally, a representative parliament is ushered in. It had been a long wait: Almost three months since the election that swept Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy to victory, on top of years of being kept on the sidelines by military control. Today, Myanmar’s NLD MPs took their seats in parliament as the ruling party. → Read More
Women suffer burden of war, so give them space at the table
An article in the Women In The World section of the New York Times website this week makes a disturbing observation. → Read More
Don’t ignore the victims when doing deals with the generals
The recent meeting between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and “retired” military dictator U Than Shwe has been widely welcomed as a step forward on the road to peaceful transition. → Read More
Minding your Ps and Qs when discussing procreative parts in court
In a remarkable twist of already ludicrous legal proceedings, it emerged this week that the lawyer defending poet U Maung Saungkha against defamation charges has asked for the young female judge to be taken off the case because the trial will involve the use of words “unsuitable” for womanly ears. → Read More
No confidence, or no opportunity?
Last week I wrote that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s landslide victory marked a new era for women’s rights in Myanmar, while cautioning that there are many challenges ahead. → Read More
President expected to meet NLD leader next month
In the latest twist over President U Thein Sein’s refusal to set a date to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi following her party’s landslide election victory, Minister for Information U Ye Htut said yesterday that he expects a meeting will take place sometime next month. → Read More
With constitutional change unlikely, Daw Suu to pick obedient president
It is likely to take at least a year until constitutional change can be achieved, a National League for Democracy spokesperson says, rejecting speculation that the current parliament would agree to amend section 59(f) to allow Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to become president after her landslide election victory. → Read More
Delayed post-election talks put transition in doubt
President U Thein Sein appears to have delayed indefinitely a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the transfer of power to a new government following her party’s landslide election victory. → Read More
Outgoing MPs ease back in to work
Even as they resume parliamentary duties over the next few months, incumbent MPs who lost in the election are mulling plans for the coming year when the National League for Democracy will claim their majority in the hluttaw. → Read More
Ethnic parties fall short of expectations
In the final days before the election, many analysts were predicting the National League for Democracy might struggle to get an absolute majority in parliament, where the military is allocated 25 percent of seats in both houses. → Read More