If anything is wrong with the world that you notice and it concerns you, I challenge you to pray about it. Pray seriously, make a commitment and make it known to someone else. Give it at least a couple of weeks and pray for that thing which is broken in the world. If nothing much happens, fine. If God touches your heart, follow it. Invest in the Kingdom of God.
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Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. (Ecclesiastes 4:1 ESV)
Shan-Tai prayer month 2011, day 29
Aged 14, raped then burned alive
Thailand has long been known for it’s sleazy sex ‘trade’ and Burma is known for being violently oppressive. This combination makes life for many Shan women a torment at the mercy of lustful men.
Traditional rural Shan society is male-dominated. Men occupy all leading positions in the public sphere, as village headmen, and members of village and temple committees. In family life, they are regarded as the heads of the household. Women play no role in decision-making at the community level. They are expected to marry, serve their husbands, and bear children. In the household, women do most of the cooking, cleaning and childcare tasks; outside the house they also fetch water, plant and collect vegetables. (Licence to Rape, p6)
Rape in Burma
Under ‘normal’ circumstances rape is no more common amongst Shan than in other cultures. However, the Burma Army has been using rape as a weapon of war against the Shan:
Sexual violence serves the multiple purpose of not only terrorizing local communities into submission, but also flaunting the power of the dominant troops over the enemy’s women, and thereby humiliating and demoralizing resistance forces. Furthermore, it serves as a “reward” to troops for fighting in the war. (Licence to Rape, p7)
The suffering endured by Shan women in Burma is hard to comprehend. There is usually no justice – 85% of rapes are committed by officers in the Army who either deny offending or simply take an attitude of “so what are you going to do about it?”, knowing full well that power is on their side. Often when a woman or girl reports a rape to the village headman he doesn’t take it up with the army because of a well-placed fear that he himself will be beaten for making an accusation.
In addition there is a stigma projected upon rape victims, who may be rejected by their community, even their own family, and often by their husbands. The initial trauma of a violent rape causes years of suffering for the innocent woman who was coerced.
The fact that one of the women repeatedly raped during a period of almost two months (case 51) became insane is an indication of the level of trauma experienced by women subjected to rape. Another woman became an opium addict following the rape (case 76), and abandoned her young child as a result. (Licence to Rape, p22)
In another case, a schoolgirl who was raped in the street by a Burmese army soldier, was refused support by her family. “My family didn’t understand, and they didn’t take care of me. They didn’t accept me, and my friends looked down on me. I felt completely alone and depressed. This was in 1991, when I was in 10th standard in Murng Hsat high school. I had to take an examination soon after the rape, but my depression kept me from taking the exam. This affected everything, and my life went downhill.” (case 1) (Licence to Rape, p23)
Sex slavery in Thailand
While the menace of rape threatens women and girls on the Burmese side of the border, on the Thai side prostitution and AIDS decimate the lives of young women and girls. I use the heading ‘sex slavery’ because there seems little doubt that no woman would willingly subject herself to the life of a sex worker in Thailand.
The infection rate with HIV is 50%, meaning that at the time a survey was conducted half of all prostitutes surveyed were HIV positive. These women cannot afford treatment so will inevitably die of AIDS. With such a high incidence of infection, working in the sex industry is virtually a death sentence. Why do they do it?
A 'customer'
Shan women are very attractive and have unique features so are in high demand as prostitutes. They are not allowed to work legally in Thailand so whatever industry they work in has risks of being deported. And they are very poor, making them desperate to get any work. Many Shan girls end up as prostitutes in order to eat.
A common scenario is that a girl is offered a job which pays well. She naively agrees, not knowing what the job really is – the offer may be of work in a bar or café. She only discovers the sordid truth after she is already indebted to the pimp and cannot escape without paying an amount of money way beyond anything she could afford. She is a slave with invisible chains holding her, being worked to death.
Pray for:
- Protection of Shan women and girls on both sides of the Thai border.
- The international community to press for justice for victims of war crimes in Burma.
- Jesus to comfort and heal the women who are suffering from sexual abuse (Luke 7:37-48).
- The Church of Christ to be His compassionate face and arms to these women (John 8:2-11).
Other posts related to this topic:
- Day 28: Refugees Without A Camp
- Day 30: Pray for what is broken
- Joy and hope
- God in a brothel
External Resources:
- Compasio
- Shan Women’s Action Network
- Licence to Rape PDF
- Burma Army gives rapists free rein in northern Shan State offensive (July 2011)
Download the Shan Prayer Guide:
30 Days of Prayer for the Shan
Images of Shan sex workers: JPHulme
Burmese soldiers advance. They kill our animals, take our rice.
From our schools they take the learning and the light.
They burn our villages and steal our minds.
We hear the soldiers’ voices, and we are filled with fear and hate.
And we must run, run, run, until our legs break,
Refugees without a home, refugees without a camp.They dress our Buddhas in women’s underwear.
We see our people floating bloated in the river,
We have land but cannot farm it, forced labor is our lot.
“Peace, peace. peace,” they say. Burma says we are at peace.
But we are not. We hear gunshots night and day.
And we must run, run, run, until our legs break,
Refugees without a home, refugees without a camp.Some Shan live in Thailand, work as servants or as slaves,
some live in relocation camps, without money, food, or hope.
Some live in the jungle and hear their dying child’s cries,
mosquitoes on their limbs, and leeches in their eyes.
They dig a shallow grave and place the child inside.
And then they run, run, run, until their legs break.
Refugees without a home, refugees without a camp.By Sai Leng Hsim
Shan-Tai prayer month 2011, day 28
The poem above is an original Shan poem by a student at a school for Shan students in Thailand. It was translated into English by Bernice Koehler Johnson, one of his teachers.
If you have been praying with me this month you may also be feeling like me a desire to ‘do more than just pray’. My first comment about this is that praying is the most important thing we can do. Remaining at home in comfort and praying diligently and with love for Jesus and for the Shan people is not a copout unless God has clearly told you to be doing something else.
However, as I pray I find that God has been opening my eyes, heart and mind to notice other ways in which I might also be able to help the Shan people in a small way. Many people doing small things intentionally can make a massive difference. I will be continuing to pray, and with my prayers will also try to do my small things for the Shan.
Run for Relief
One way of helping might be to Run for Relief. As the website states, “for a million villagers in Burma, running is not an option”. I am not at all fit, I can barely run for 5 minutes but after praying these last 27 days and reading the poem above, it seems callous of me to not at least try. Though this will have to be something of a longer term plan!
Talk about the Shan people
Another way to help the Shan people is to talk about their situation to others. The military regime has intentionally restricted the flow of information out of Burma, we can counter this as many people willingly communicate what they have tried to suppress – the truth.
Pray for
- The diligence and love necessary to continue praying for the Shan.
- Insights of ways to help the Shan in addition to praying.
- Encouragement for those who have been already labouring long to help the Shan people, whether Christians or not.
- For knowledge of the true situation in Burma to permeate the world.
Other posts related to this topic:
- Day 27: Christ in you, not ink
- Day 29: Sexual exploitation of Shan women and girls
- In the world but not of it
External Resources:
Download the Shan Prayer Guide:
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4 ESV)
Shan-Tai prayer month 2011, day 27
The traditional method of tattooing in Burma
Tattooing has seen a resurgence in the west, while amongst Shan people the traditional practise is slowly dwindling. The Shan do not view tattoos as body art, but rather body armour.
Shan men get tattoos to help ward off evil and bring good fortune. The tattooist is a powerful person in the village and as he cuts the skin and injects ink he also chants and blows in a ‘spell’ which will protect the recipient from certain misfortunes or bring a particular good fortune in his life.
As Shan men migrate into places such as Thailand and encounter more western and secular forms of thought, the reliance upon tattoos for protection and blessing has waned. In its place is perhaps a more misplaced trust – that the United Nations or United States will save the Shan and bring good fortune to their people.
In many ways looking to the U.N. and U.S.A. for help from a corrupt military dictatorship is a logical thing to do. Both of these like to champion democracy and human rights so surely they would stand up for the persecuted Shan people against the genocide of the Burma Army. Unfortunately self interest, money, power and cowardice infest these human entities just as any other.
As with trusting in a special tattoo for help in desperate times is likely to disappoint, so trusting in any human solution is also likely to let the Shan people down. There is only One who is truly trustworthy, who will never let them down, who has the will and the power to save. Let us pray that the Shan turn to trust in Jesus Christ, that His Church rises up to seek justice for the Shan, and that God delivers them physically and spiritually.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
(Psalm 121:1-2 ESV)
Pray for
- Shan to realize that the power for protection only comes from Christ (Psalm 91:14-16).
- God to answer the cries of Shan in distress and for Shan to take refuge, spiritually and well as physically, in the Lord (Psalm 7:1-2).
- For Shan men to trust in the Holy Spirit to be in them, protecting them, rather than ink (Romans 8:9-11).
Other posts related to this topic:
- Day 26: A tin village
- Day 28: Refugees Without A Camp
- Seeking protection
Download the Shan Prayer Guide:
30 Days of Prayer for the Shan
Image credit: fabianfred
Today I went to visit my other neighbours. About 500m down the road from my house is a Shan slum. It had a rickety wooden fence around it and the houses are made out of corrugated iron. The children are riding their bikes and playing on the dusty earth. I’ve assumed it’s Shan before even though I’ve never been into it, because most of these kind of slums are filled with Shan people who have escaped from the oppressive military regime in Burma and work for around $3-$6 a day as construction workers in Thailand. As a result of their work, they often move around from construction site to site, and so they just bring their families and build these slums near their work. (Visiting my neighbour)
Shan-Tai prayer month 2011, day 26
Needing to escape the hardships of Burma, tens of thousands of Shan have migrated into Thailand hoping to find safety and a better life. It is hard to know if they really do get a better life. Being paid a pittance, living in slums, working long hours, often 7 days a week, they end up being little better than slaves.
You could say that at least they are not being persecuted by the Burma Army, but the Thai police can be quite ruthless to those who are unable to pay bribes. Without work permits Shan people still live with constant anxiety that they may be caught by police and deported back to Burma – into the hands of the Burma Army.
Hopelessness can overtake people in such circumstances, and often does. Without hope there can be a rapid descent into alcohol, drugs, gambling, crime, prostitution. How can the Shan have hope? In dark times, in weakness and poverty, what is there to hope for?
We know that Jesus Christ is the hope of the world, He gives light and eternal life of more value than any material goods. He gives all this and more to those who believe in Him. All they need to do is hear, understand and believe.
For this hope to come to the Shan, someone must go and tell them.
Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8 NIV)
Cardboard was piled in the gaps between the roof and wall, probably to block the wind. I’m sure everyone could hear everything though. They slept on the floor, but did have electricity. It would be cold at nights, since they only had one layer of iron around them. (Visiting my neighbour)
Pray for:
- Workers who will go where the Shan live to speak truth in languages they understand.
- God to prepare hearts and make a way for all Shan to hear about Him and the love He has for all people.
- The Shan who live in Thailand in subsistence housing who face prejudice, rejection and exploitation daily.
- The Gospel to spread rapidly from Shan to Shan and transform lives as it takes root in hearts.
Other posts related to this topic:
External Resources:
Download the Shan Prayer Guide:
30 Days of Prayer for the Shan
Image of Shan slum in Chiang Mai: Jazng
