Looks like Emma Thompson has split with the Burma Campaign UK. Interesting that she came to the issue of HIV after reading about the grandmothers.

[him] moderator

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Emma Thompson stars in feminism talk
May Sandy
Myanmar Times
October 24 - 30, 2011

SPEAKING to a packed audience at the Australian Club in Yangon on the 15th of October, British Academy Award-winning actress, Emma Thompson charmed an enthralled Myanmar audience with her humour and warmth at a panel-discussion on “Women, Feminism and Myanmar’s Future”.

Joining her on the panel were, Professor Dr. Daw Myint Myint Khin, Myanmar writer, Ju, rock singer Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein and the CEO of ActionAid, Joanna Kerr.

Emma Thompson gave a star performance with her talk, discussing how feminism influenced her activist work.

“I was an angry militant feminist as a young woman. Now I am just a mildly simmering one, but I have kept on the boil.”

Advising the audience on facing up to men, she said:

“Do you know of any man who can give birth and stand the pain of childbirth?” she asked. When you are challenged with physical weakness by a man, just say childbirth! – they can’t argue with that!” she added as the audience roared with laughter.

She explained how she first became involved in humanitarian work with ActionAid, an international NGO, after her mother read an article of grandmothers having to look after children whose parents died of HIV.

During her time in Myanmar, Emma visited villages in Meikhtila township in the dry zone, with ActionAid in their “Fellowship Programme” which is being implemented in many parts of the country.

ActionAid’s Fellowship programme facilitates community empowerment processes through long-term interaction with individuals, where they become catalysts for change in the community.

During the talk she recounted a meeting with a young girl who was brought up by her aunt in a village in the dry zone.

“There was this struggle everyday with the stigma of growing up as a 29 year old girl in a village.”

This girl told Emma, “I was folded and folded and put in the ‘good girl’ box”.

“Until we stop feeding our girls’ inferiority, with every mouthful they take as they grow up, as they watch the most powerful potent food given to the boys, this weakness grows in their bones. This is a deep deep thing that we have to address.” Emma said.

“We have to talk to mothers. We have to address this right at the beginning, behind the closed doors where anything and everything all too often happens. These young women and young men are the future of the country. Young people who are ready, its unique to Myanmar, something to do with your culture.. I think this ancient strain of female culture. I see incredible change, a lot of it will be brought about by women.”

“I hope to see the ancient strain of female power (in Myanmar culture) will come through like flowers through cement and concrete.” she said.

Speaking on “Feminism and Women’s Movements”, Joanna Kerr, said,

“Feminism is about how to create inclusive space – to ensure that everyone has a voice.” She noted that women in Myanmar were organizing from the local to the national level, coming together in their diversity in very inclusive processes to bring about change. Nevertheless, economic motives were not enough to overcome the basic structure of patriarchy which entraps people in poverty in rural Myanmar society, she added.

Talking about women’s rights and the economy, she pointed out that some forms of work were more empowering than others and there was a need to focus on getting women into paid formal work, not only at the micro level. She cautioned against missing out on women’s participation at the macro level.

Speaking about the winds of change through Myanmar’s history, Professor Dr. Daw Myint Myint Khin recalled that Burmese women were at their freest and most liberated during the Bagan period. Women were active in the governance of the country, with structures, equivalent to juries in court of law that included women. Bhikkhuni – the equivalent clergy for the female gender which existed in the time of Buddha, existed during the Bagan era but later disappeared. There was also a high literacy rate among women while monastic education was the mainstay of learning.

After the annexation of Myanmar by the British, education, in the modern sense came with the Christian missionaries, largely leaving women out. This led to a period in Myanmar’s recent history where male chauvinism reared its head, preventing women from taking up office in decision-making positions.

Nevertheless during this modern period, women’s roles in commerce and trade remained untouched and was where Myanmar women excelled. She noted that today the largest supermarket chain in Myanmar is owned by a woman and that all the silk houses and tea industries in Mandalay were run by women.

Challenging the portrayal of the male and female roles in the family in the media and in the entertainment industry, popular writer Ju said that it only reinforced stereotypes. Images of flawless beauty in advertisements reinforce the image of women as objects of beauty and causes insecurity. She called for more women leadership courses as there was a need for self-confidence in women.

Giving credit to her family and the “good men” that had encouraged her throughout her life, rock singer and medical doctor, Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein, called for more education opportunities for Myanmar girls.

“Truth is the fruit of education. Knowing the truth is the first step to better ourselves. There is a need for education not feminism.” she said.

After the talk, Emma Thompson told The Myanmar Times a bit more about what inspired her to work in human rights and the effect such ideas can have in places such as Myanmar.

“It’s a form of compassion. It makes me unhappy – the situation for a lot of people – and I could do one of two things. I could say, ‘Oh, I feel really unhappy but I’ll make myself feel better by going and buying myself a new handbag;’ or, “The situation’s made me feel unhappy, I’m going to do something about it.”

She explained that human rights is not just about changing a situation, but understanding the context in order to effect change.

“The challenge is, generally speaking I suppose, when the question arises, ‘what is good culture and what is bad culture’? In my opinion, female genital mutilation, whilst it is a very powerful culture that is still practiced in some places I’ve visited, I think that’s bad culture.”

What is needed is to understand the motivating forces in these situations, which so often follow gender lines.

“I think it is essentially oppressive. I don’t like patriarchy. I think that it does a disservice also to man. As I’ve said, oppressive practices, whether they are visited upon men or women, are not good for the human race. So where they are, we must question, fight and dismantle them.”

For Myanmar then, she highlighted the difference between knowing about the country and actually visiting in the kind of impact you can have.

“Obviously because I’m a member of Amnesty International and supported Burma Campaign UK in the past, I’ve been aware of the situation of political prisoners insofar as they have reported your country, I have been aware, but I don’t think it’s the same as being aware of a country being there and talking to its people, which I’ve now had the opportunity to do. Being here among the people.

“I am learning so much everyday and I’m so impressed by the young people that I’ve met in the Fellowship programme. What is happening with your young people is really really interesting and its really effective. There are people in your country who are acting and acting in ways that are producing hugely beneficial results.”

Ultimately the promotion of civil society, and the role of women is a vital part of the development process, and a balance to the impersonal forces of capitalism.

“What worries me most about opening this country, is that I can almost smell the sharks. We’ve seen it happen in other countries, so therefore the development of trade and your economy, you’re going to have to be very careful. People will come in here and just grab what they can get. We’ve seen it before. So I suppose, if anything, I know that habit of external business interests, the greed that is out there and I hope that the terrible circumstances that have been produced in other countries because of that greed, does not happen here.”

But by coming here, and learning, Emma said she could see positives in the way the process was being fostered by including multiple actors in the process.

“It seems to me that people on all sides, your armed groups, your ethnic groups, the majority, Aung San Suu Kyi, everyone seems to want this process not to happen with indecent or undue haste but for everyone to take each step in a very careful way and I think that that’s really important.”

http://www.mmtimes.com/2011/timeout/598/timeout59801.html