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Canadians Bully Burmese Junta With... Panties?

Women mail skivvies to embassy to spook superstitious tyrants

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted May 28, 2008 10:59 AM CDT
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(Newser) – When international pressure fails, try… underwear? Canadian women think they can change the Myanmar junta’s ways by mailing a steady stream of panties to the Myanmar embassy in Ottawa, Sify reports. The military dictators apparently harbor a superstitious fear that touching a woman’s undergarment will “rob them of their power,” according to Panties for Peace!, the organization coordinating the movement.

“Myanmar women have suffered the most at the hands of the military junta. They bring women to barracks, rape and brutalize them, and then dump them back in their villages,” said one Panties for Peace! organizer. “We appeal to every Canadian woman to clean up her drawer, choose one piece of panties, glue a picture of the military rulers on it” and send it to the embassy.

Can sexist superstition change the world? Panties for Peace! aims to find out.
Can sexist superstition change the world? Panties for Peace! aims to find out.   (Shutterstock)
Like all other cultures, there was a superstitious fear of female undergarments in Myanmar. Its military junta fears that any contact with panties will spell disaster for them, said the organizer.
"Like all other cultures, there was a superstitious fear of female undergarments in Myanmar. Its military junta fears that any contact with panties will spell disaster for them," said the organizer.   (Shutterstock)
Myanmar Senior Gen. Than Shwe is seen just before a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, May 23, 2008, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.
Myanmar Senior Gen. Than Shwe is seen just before a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, May 23, 2008, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.   (AP Photo/Stan HONDA, POOL)
The Myanmar opposition National League for Democracy party stage a protest in Yangon, Myanmar Tuesday, May 27, 2008. They hold a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Myanmar opposition National League for Democracy party stage a protest in Yangon, Myanmar Tuesday, May 27, 2008. They hold a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi.   (AP Photo/Democratic Voice of Burma, HO)
Myanmar's Junta still fears contact with female undergarments, according to Panties for Peace!
Myanmar's Junta still fears contact with female undergarments, according to Panties for Peace!   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
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Don't send aid to Burma - except panties
National Post (Canada)

This isn't the first Panties for Peace campaign
Jezebel

 
Canada • protests • Myanmar • Burma • superstition • military junta • underwear

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