November was the first time she was old enough to vote, and she cast her ballot for the National League for Democracy, the party of Suu Kyi, which won in a landslide, only to have the military overturn the results by seizing power.īefore the coup, Thuzar Wint Lwin’s biggest ordeal came when she was 19 and had surgery to remove precancerous tumours from each breast, leaving permanent scars. “We have been living in freedom for five years,” she said.
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In 2015, the country seated democratically elected officials for the first time in more than a half-century.
#Miss myanmar free
Thuzar Wint Lwin is part of the first generation in Myanmar to grow up fully connected to the outside world and for whom a free society seemed normal. But by 2011, the military began sharing power with civilian leaders and opening the country, allowing cellphones and affordable internet access to flood in. Soon after, the military crushed that protest movement by shooting dozens of people. “We went to a stranger’s house, and we were hiding.” As they neared the pagoda, soldiers broke up the protest by shooting their guns in the air. One of her early memories was walking with her mother near Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon in 2007, when monks led nationwide protests against military rule. Like many parents, her father, a businessman, and her mother, a housewife, dared not discuss the military government that was then in power. Thuzar Wint Lwin said she believes that it will not be safe for her to return to Myanmar after speaking out against the regime she does not know where she will go after the pageant ends.Īn English major at East Yangon University, her path to the pro-democracy movement can perhaps be traced back to her childhood. And mixed martial arts fighter Aung La Nsang, an American citizen and one of Myanmar’s most famous athletes, has urged President Joe Biden to help end the suffering of Myanmar’s people.Įxclusive Myanmar coup Inside the underground network smuggling ‘celebrities’ out of Myanmar Win Htet Oo, one of the country’s best swimmers, said from Australia that he was giving up his dream of going to the Olympics and would not compete under the Myanmar flag until the regime’s leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, was removed from power. In criticising the junta from outside her country, Miss Universe Myanmar is not alone. “I had to pass through immigration, and I was so scared,” she said in an interview from Florida. She saw reports of well-known people being detained as they tried to leave the country, so she decided to wear a hoodie and glasses to keep from being recognised at the Yangon airport. Ysa Pérez/The New York Timesīefore leaving for the United States, she watched anxiously to see if her name had ended up on the military’s wanted list.
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Thuzar Wint Lwin doesn’t expect to be able to return to Myanmar following her criticism of the junta.