Beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence: women endure torture in Myanmar prisons

Female prisoners in Myanmar are subjected to widespread torture, sexual violence and life-threatening medical neglect, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, underlining the chronic ill-treatment of thousands of detainees in the war-torn nation.

Since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup, a protracted civil war ‌has gripped the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, devastating several regions and killing about 100,000 while displacing more than 3.5 million.

In a report, the New York-based rights group said more than 6,600 women, including former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 640 children, are among the more than 30,000 political prisoners detained since the coup.

“Women who have been detained as political prisoners in Myanmar paint a deeply disturbing picture of a prison system in which suffering and neglect ⁠are both deliberate and routine,” said Bryony Lau, the group’s Asia deputy director.