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" Writers, fighters and prostitutes : "
Than, Tharaphi
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1099031
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| Doc. No
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TLets559848
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| Main Entry
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Than, Tharaphi
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| Title & Author
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Writers, fighters and prostitutes :\ Than, Tharaphi
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| College
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School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London)
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| Date
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2010
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| student score
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2010
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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This thesis explores the political and social landscape of Burmese women from 1942 to1962, focusing on three groups of women - writers, fighters, and prostitutes. It findsthat although the roles of women - and of these three groups in particular - evolvedsubstantially in this period, women remained essentially sidelined from the mainpolitical movements and events.Women fighters were drafted into the army during the latter stages of the war,essentially to undertake propaganda work while the men, the backbone of the resistanceagainst the Japanese, went into hiding. But at the end of the war, the women weredismissed, and came to play no significant part in Burma's armed forces. Many of thesewomen then moved towards the communists: but there again they were sidelined.Burmese women were also discouraged from playing prominent parts in the newlyindependent Burma's politics, often by women themselves.This period also saw the problem of prostitution become a moral rather than a publichealth issue. Whereas the British had been concerned to curb prostitution in order toprotect British troops and the wider European population, the AFPFL of U Nu sawprostitution as essentially a moral issue and a threat to nation-building. The curbing oreradication of prostitution became crucial in U Nu' s drive to highlight the importance ofmorality in creating a clean state amidst accusations of corruption on the part of hisministers. Problems of prostitution promoted him to defend morality and moreimportantly Buddhism.In essence the thesis concerns the conflicts between modernity and tradition in a Burmamoving from colonialism into independence, as played out by and for these three groupsof women. The modem Burmese woman demanded modem commodities such ascigarettes, nylon fabrics, and contraceptive pills, and business used images of modemwomen in advertising to capture modernity. But many, both men and women, sawmodernity as a threat to nation-building and, more importantly, to the purity of theBurman race and Buddhism.
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| Added Entry
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School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London)
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