Internally displaced Karen women coping with displacement in Myanmar | |
| Author | Zin Mar Oo |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.GD-15-02 |
| Subject(s) | Women--Myanmar--Social conditions Displaced persons--Myanmar |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. GD-15-02 |
| Abstract | The internally displaced population in general is seen as the most disadvantaged and vulnerable victims of conflict and there has been limited research on how they have survived in armed conflict situations. In Myanmar, armed conflict between the government military and the Karen armed groups has caused displacement of Karen villagers to state controlled relocation sites where both men and women have restricted mobility and are subject to all forms of forced labor activities. In displacement, village men are often recruited for forced labor activities and often arrested by the military for suspicion of supporting the ethnic armed troops. As men flee the village to avoid direct encounter with the military troops, women and children are left behind to fend for themselves and rebuild the communities disturbed by armed conflict. The focus of the research is to explore the gendered experiences of the internally displaced people who were living in refugee-like circumstances, in the territory of their own country under the responsibility of the very regime who had displaced them. This research, which dealt with people who had been forced to leave their original villages by internal armed conflicts, tried to see the displaced people from an actor-oriented perspective and explore how they developed the response strategies and made significant contributions to the reconstruction of livelihoods and communities by building on existing experience and networks. Oral history has been chosen as the main methodology for collecting women‘s unheard voices, their hidden spheres of life and their personal networks in rebuilding their life in displacement. While feminist social scientists have raised the question about gender implications of men at high risk fleeing and women and children ‗internally stuck‘, the case of displaced Karen women indicates that although their male family members left the village for safety, women had made a clear decision to stay back by developing various response strategies to show their resilience under adverse circumstances. It is found from the research that the displaced Karen women relied heavily on their social networks which was the only available resource to provide them with financial and material assistance as well as emotional support in the form of friendship, advice and companionship. The displaced Karen women also revealed an extraordinary ability to face new situations and take advantage of opportunities. In displacement women‘s networks are not limited to members of their networks only but spreads out to their abusers, the military. Karen women establish network linkages with military officers and soldiers by using their image of motherhood to develop response strategies to survive in the underbelly of the military control. It was found that the social networks and linkages that women had nurtured and developed in displacement had provided them with a morale boost, strengthened their spirits and allowed them to access livelihood activities. Thus social networks of women played a significant role in developing response strategies to cope with life in displacement and to reduce the damage from the experiences of conflict and displacement. |
| Year | 2015 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. GD-15-02 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Gender and Development Studies (GD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kusakabe, Kyoko; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Doneys, Philippe;Soparth Pongquan; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Government of Japan; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph. D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2015 |