This photo taken on December 10 shows female members of the Mandalay People’s Defense Forces (MDY-PDF) heading to the frontline amid clashes with the Myanmar military in northern Shan State.//AFP
Shan State, Myanmar – An 18-year-old recruit in one of Myanmar’s pro-democracy fighting units prepares to launch a drone strike on junta troops, driven by anger and her mother’s call for revolution.
Moe Moe is one of hundreds of women training, living and fighting alongside men in the “People’s Defence Forces”, upending gender norms in the mostly Buddhist country.
She grew up during a rare period of democracy in Myanmar and, after the military ended it with a 2021 coup, joined one of the dozens of PDF units that formed to end the junta’s rule.
Moe Moe initially worked with a group organising protests against the military but, after months of the junta’s’ deadly…
