REVOLUSI DALAM LIPATAN HTAMEIN: KUASA SIMBOLIK WANITA MYANMAR (2021-2024)
REVOLUTION IN THE HTAMEIN FOLD: THE SYMBOLIC POWER OF MYANMAR’S WOMEN (2021-2024)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v7i2.1132Keywords:
Myanmar, htamein, simbolisme, protes, emansipasi wanitaAbstract
Artikel ini menganalisis “Revolusi Htamein” pascakudeta Myanmar 2021 sebagai bentuk penentangan simbolik wanita terhadap rejim tentera. Htamein, kain tradisional wanita Burma, secara historis diposisikan dalam kerangka patriarki dan dikaitkan dengan kepercayaan bahawa lelaki akan kehilangan hpone (kuasa spiritual maskulin) jika melaluinya. Wanita Myanmar memanfaatkan simbol ini dengan menggantung htamein di jalan-jalan utama sebagai strategi protes yang melemahkan moral aparat keselamatan dan membuka ruang taktikal bagi penunjuk perasaan. Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan analisis wacana kritikal berasaskan sumber primer, termasuk laporan rasmi dan berita atas talian yang mendokumentasikan pengalaman langsung wanita dalam Spring Revolution 2021–2024, serta sumber sekunder, seperti karya teori dan historiografi (Butler, Mohanty, Scott, Enloe) yang menyediakan kerangka analisis gender, kuasa dan penentangan. Dapatan menunjukkan bahawa penggunaan htamein bukan sahaja mendedahkan keretakan dalam ideologi patriarki, tetapi juga menegaskan peranan wanita sebagai agen perubahan politik aktif. Fenomena ini memperlihatkan bagaimana simbol budaya yang sebelum ini mengekang wanita dapat digunakan semula sebagai senjata politik yang kreatif dan subversif. Antara 2021–2024, kuasa simbolik htamein berkembang menjadi naratif transformatif yang memperkukuh solidariti gender, mencabar hegemoni patriarki, dan menandai fasa baharu emansipasi wanita dalam gerakan pro-demokrasi Myanmar.
This article analyses the “Htamein Revolution” following Myanmar’s 2021 military coup as a form of symbolic resistance by women against the authoritarian regime. Htamein, the traditional Burmese women’s skirt, has historically been positioned within a patriarchal framework and associated with the belief that men would lose hpone (masculine spiritual power) if they crossed it. Women in Myanmar repurposed this cultural symbol by hanging htamein in public streets as a protest strategy that undermined the morale of security forces while creating tactical space for demonstrators. The study employs a critical discourse analysis approach, drawing on primary sources, including official reports and online news documenting women’s direct experiences during the Spring Revolution (2021–2024), as well as secondary sources, such as theoretical and historiographical works (Butler, Mohanty, Scott, Enloe) providing frameworks for analysing gender, power, and resistance. Findings indicate that the use of htamein not only exposes cracks in entrenched patriarchal ideology but also affirms women’s role as active political agents. The phenomenon demonstrates how cultural symbols previously constraining women can be creatively and subversively reappropriated as instruments of political struggle. Between 2021 and 2024, the symbolic power of htamein evolved beyond street protests into a transformative narrative that strengthened gender solidarity, challenged patriarchal hegemony, and marked a new phase of women’s emancipation in Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement.
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