BURMESE WOMEN DEMAND EQUAL RIGHTS WITH MEN

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6900, 4 May 1929, Page 15

BURMESE WOMEN DEMAND EQUAL RIGHTS WITH MEN

SIMON CONFERENCE HEARS REQUEST. BOMBAY. ' '' The Burmese women have had power to vote for members of the local Legislature on the same terms' as men for the last seven years /but they have been denied the right to choose one of their own sex to represetn them. This anomaly in Burma, a country where lyomen have taken an active part in public life for generations, was stressed by a deputation of Burmese women ,led by Miss C. Dantra, barrister-at-law, who gave evidence before the Simon. Joint Conference (Royal .Commission and Indian Central Committee) at Rangoon.

There are none of the. obstacle? in Burma, as the deputation pointed out, which face women in India. “We have no caste system,” said their; spokesman, “no "purdah (veiling by w<)men). Yet, while in India most of tho provinces have been enfranchised completely, by allowing thorn to vote as well as to sit on the local Legislatures, in this province we are only partly enfranchised. Wo are only, allowed to vote for men to speak for us. We, by "reason of our sex, are more fitted to deal svith certain problems of a social character, . housing, health and hygiene and tho education of children. Wo women in Burma are willing to shoulder our responsibility toward the next generation and the welfare of the' state in general.”