On 25 November, the United Nations (UN) International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, civil society organisation (CSO) Free Expression Myanmar (FEM) calls on people to remember the more than 300 women and girls whose voices have been killed by the coup.

According to FEM the killed women included students, protesters, teachers, nurses, public officials, nuns, civil society workers, political activists, shop workers, human rights defenders, resistance fighters, and labourers.

Striking nurse Zarli Naing and striking teacher Khin Hnin Wai were captured in Magway, killed, and burned by the military in June 2022. Their voices and their potential to improve Myanmar are forever gone.

58 of those killed were children still developing their own opinions and voices. 30 girls were killed under the age of 12, and at least 12 girls had never even been to school before dying.

Two-year-old Shwe Yoon Eain died in a Rakhine prison in February 2022, denied medical treatment while accompanying her mother detained as a “terrorist”. None of these deaths was “accidental” and all were either intentional or due to extreme negligence.

Many were killed for their heroic acts of bravery in defying the military through protests and expressions of dissent.

At least 111 were shot and killed, many while protesting against the coup and others while protecting the protesters. Nurse Thinzar Hein was shot in the head while attending to the wounded at a Sagaing protest in March 2021. At least 40 were killed while being held in detention by the military. 20 were burned alive.

In many cases, violence against women is gender-based violence targeted at their womanhood.

At least 17 women and girls were reportedly raped and killed. 14-year-old Moe Moe Htwe was raped and burned alive by the military in Magway in April 2022. CDM striking public official Htet Nay Chi Min was reportedly raped and killed in Sagaing in February 2022. Many, many more have been subjected to sexual violence, the real scale of which remains unknown.

“International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women” was adopted in 2000 by the UN General Assembly under resolution 54/134. Violence includes physical, sexual, and psychological harm or suffering to women and girls, including threats, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

The CSO the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has recorded the names of the women and girls killed during the coup.