Myanmar’s female prisoners face torture and neglect

Female detainees in Myanmar are enduring routine torture, sexual violence and life‑threatening medical neglect, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch, underscoring the grim reality inside the country’s prisons five years after the military coup.

Since the army seized power in February 2021, Myanmar has been locked in civil war, leaving around 100,000 dead and displacing more than 3.5 million people. The rights group estimates that more than 30,000 political prisoners are currently held, including 6,600 women and 640 children. Among them is Nobel laureate and former leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“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 organisation’s Asia deputy director.

The report, based on interviews with 17 former female detainees, details beatings with sticks and metal pipes, electric shocks, cigarette burns, stress positions and sexual violence. Pregnant women were denied medical care, with some forced to give birth in their cells. One former prisoner described being chained immediately after delivery.

Authorities have consistently blocked access to treatment for serious conditions, while at least 74 political prisoners aged between 18 and 35 have died in custody since the coup, many allegedly due to inadequate medical care and harsh interrogation.

Myanmar’s military‑backed government, installed after a widely criticised election that elevated former junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to the presidency, has not responded to the allegations.

The findings echo a 2025 United Nations investigation that documented torture in detention facilities, including gang rape and burning of sexual body parts. Together, they paint a picture of a prison system where abuse is not the exception but the rule, deepening the suffering of a nation already scarred by war.

-2026-09-24