Women soldiers to the fore

All in a day’s work: Members of the Mandalay People’s Defence Forces repairing and cleaning weapons at their base camp in the forest in Myanmar’s northern Shan State. — AFP

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” (PDF), upending gender norms in the mostly Buddhist country.