[Tee tiong huat]

An 18-year-old recruit in one of Myanmar’s pro-democracy fighting units prepares to launch a drone strike on junta troops, driven by anger and her mother’s call for revolution. Moe Moe is one of hundreds of women training, living and fighting alongside men in the “People’s Defence Forces” (PDF), upending gender norms in the mostly Buddhist country.

She grew up during a rare period of democracy in Myanmar, after military ended it with a 2021 coup, she joined one of dozens of PDF units that formed to end junta’s rule. Moe Moe initially worked with organising protests against military but, after mths of junta’s deadly crackdown, she decided to become a fighter. “I can’t stand military’s injustice,” she said after carrying out drone strike in Shan state, which neighbours more populous Mandalay region. 

“They killed innocent civilians. The main reason I joined was because of my anger.” Moe Moe, wearing the group’s camouflage fatigues and its red peacock badge stitched onto her arm, said she had friends in the Mandalay PDF who invited her to fight with them.
https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/ase...o-the-fore