Ma Aye,  whose husband left the Myanmar military after the 2021 coup and who herself grew up as a soldier’s daughter, gives an insider’s view of  life, exploitation and discrimination, in the armed forces.

As refugees, asylum seekers, exiles or people waiting it out in other countries after Myanmar’s 2021 coup, the newest additions to the country’s huge diaspora are grappling with anxiety while away, taking up junior jobs, sending financial aid home and to the anti-coup resistance – and hoping their time away is temporary .

Whether as keyboard warriors, street protesters (some with slingshots), meal organisers or as part of nightly Buddhist prayers, Myanmar’s women are deep in the anti-coup movement.

“I didn’t want to be a journalist, but of course I didn’t want to be a political prisoner either,” editor and author Kyaw Zwa Moe said. “But I just did what I believed I should do.” He talked to Reporting ASEAN’s Johanna Son at the July launch of his book ‘The Cell, Exile and New Burma’ in Bangkok.