‘Myanmar Women Are Like Shirts’: Inside Kachin’s Chinese-Run Rare Earth Mines

In the shadow of mountains [...] the promise of immense wealth for investors has become a daily struggle for survival for Myanmar’s conflict-displaced women.

In Chinese-run mining camps along the border of northern Myanmar, women face two stark choices [...] grueling labor [...] Or they can accept “mixed” work, which means providing sexual favors to employers. [...] More than 90 percent of women employed in those sites are forced to work in the “mixed” category. [...] If they refuse [...] the employers find fault with them and dismiss them within months, often without pay.

[...] Behind these statistics lie painful personal stories. [...] “I didn’t want to choose this path,” she said, “but when the children needed food and school fees, there was no other way”. [...] Chinese businessmen have since [...] openly [using] the “clean” and “mixed” system to recruit women. [...] one former worker [...] recalled witnessing a young woman forced to undergo an abortion.

[...] Chinese bosses treat Myanmar women as disposable [...] “They say that Myanmar women are like shirts that can be changed at will”. [...] Women fleeing war [...] have also ended up in these camps, trapped by debt and desperation. [...] women working there remain voiceless, their struggles buried beneath mountains carved up for profit