Mai Len Nei Cer

Mai Len Nei Cer is the Coordinator at Ninu, which is a feminist organisation working among the Chins, one of the ethnic minorities in Myanmar.

APWLD interviewed Mai Len in January 2021 and below is her story.

Become a woman leader from a domestic worker

I noticed the discrimination against women when I worked as a domestic worker in Singapore. Growing up in the Chin State of Myanmar/Burma, I come from a big family. I am the youngest and I have eight older siblings. Maybe the discrimination had been there, but I didn’t notice it at that time.

But when I worked as a domestic worker in Singapore in the mid-2000s, the law discriminating against women workers shocked me. We didn’t get days off and the working hours were very long, while the pay was meagre. At that time, two civil society organisations from Singapore, the HOME and Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), campaigned for the day off for domestic workers. I gained knowledge about how civil society works for women’s rights, and I was motivated to work for women. 

In 2009, I returned to Myanmar/Burma and took care of my mother for three years in Chin State. Then I was invited to Yangon by a friend to work for a youth organisation. In Yangon, I’ve got a chance to join some activities of women’s organisations. For example, a group called ‘WCDI’ conducted a panel discussion in which the speakers talked about the Burmese customary law, statutory laws and international laws concerning women. It was the first time I learned about how these different laws treat women, and it was very interesting. 

Then in 2013, I went to Chiang Mai to participate in APWLD’s FLTP training, training in that all participants were from Myanmar/Burma. During that training, I learned more about law, especially from a feminist’s perspective.

After returning from Chiang Mai, I attended one event and learned about the Chin Special Division Act, which was enacted for Chin State. This law is based on Chin customary law and it discriminates against women in inheritance. I felt that we, Chin women, have to work for a change of this law and demand equal inheritance rights. Soon after, we formed Ninu with some friends in 2014 and advocate for amending this unfair law.

Growing together with APWLD

As the mentor, I was part of BOOM FPAR (2015-2017) to guide a young researcher in the organisation.  

It was our first time doing research and also learning about feminist participatory action research. During the FPAR, I participated in a protest in Manila. I was excited because I had never protested in my own country. I was very young in 1988 – the last time there was a protest in Myanmar/Burma. But more importantly, FPAR gave us a different approach and understanding of how research could serve for action. After that, we integrated what we learned from the APWLD into our own training, like civic education and gender awareness training. It became an integral part of our training.

Also, I joined the FLTP ToT in 2018, which gave me the concept of ToT and how we could solve problems better. We design our training with 15 to 20 minutes to practice it, and participants find it very useful. So we integrated what we learned for FLTP with our training as well. 

In addition, what I love about APWLD is it offers opportunities to meet different activists from different countries. We shared and learned from each other – living in Myanmar/Burma, it is challenging for us to meet people from other countries. Also, it’s difficult for us to connect movements. I like APWLD because they always send us some statements from other movements so that we can endorse them. It is a good way for us to build and ensure solidarity with other organisations and movements. Through APWLD, I learned about what’s happening globally and how other feminists are doing in their work.

Even though I can’t participate that much in the BOOM programme’s activities as a POC member, I notice that some are pretty well participating in this process, and I appreciate it. I am aware of what the programme is doing by reading emails. Unfortunately, as a grassroots organisation, we are always understaffed and I have to give more time to my organisation. This is why I am having difficulty getting engaged with APWLD.

Women’s movement in Myanmar/Burma

Myanmar/Burma has been under military dictatorship for more than 40 years. The military is very patriarchal and robust. So building a movement is very challenging. We are still at the stage of awareness-raising, and we need to do more. In addition, women in my community also are oppressed by the patriarchal customary law and practices. As the majority of the Chins are Christians, the patriarchal church also discriminates against women. The fundamental churches do not accept women as pastors. Moreover, we are one of the ethnic minorities in Myanmar/Burma while the majority is the Burmese, Buddhist.  In a word, multiple layers of oppression against Chin women and what I learned from APWLD made me see and reflect on this.

In Myanmar/Burma, civil society started after the transition, just a bit more than ten years. During this time, many women’s organisations are formed and they are progressing quite well. However, many prefer to use the word “gender” and avoid “feminist”. It seems they are ashamed to call themselves “feminists” or afraid to be called “feminists” by others. Because information had been cut down during the military dictatorship, our knowledge of feminism and the feminist movement around the world is very limited. As the civil society organisations have been suppressed in Myanmar/Burma for so long, it is very challenging for us to build a movement. 

As my organisation is based in Yangon but the main target area is Chin State, our work requires us to travel a lot. But we no longer can travel because of travel restrictions due to COVID-19. However, we continue to connect via phones and the internet with the local women’s organisations. We provide the materials such as masks, hand gels, sanitary pads, soaps, etc. and they distribute them to women in their community. From a positive perspective, the pandemic makes us better connect and work together with the locals in an effective way.

Grassroots work is challenging, especially as we are dealing with the long-rooted customary law and practices. It took me ten years of effort, and it might take us our entire lives. Even so, we got started and we have to go on. Change might be slow. But if we persevere, we hope that we will be able to move this mountain, one day.