Zin Mar Aung

Zin Mar Aung (Burmese: ဇင်မာအောင်; born 14 June 1976) is a Burmese politician, activist, and former political inmate who is serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the National Unity Government of Myanmar. She previously served as a House of Representatives MP for Yankin Township Constituency from 2016 until her removal from office in the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.[4][5][6]

In this Burmese name, the given name is Zin Mar Aung. There is no family name.
H.E Zin Mar Aung
ဇင်မာအောင်
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the National Unity Government of Myanmar
Assumed office
16 April 2021[1]
PresidentWin Myint
Preceded byOffice established
Member of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
Assumed office
15 February 2021
Member of the Pyithu Hluttaw
In office
1 February 2016 – 1 February 2021
Preceded byThar Win
ConstituencyYankin Township
Majority27,392 (77.49%)[2]
Personal details
Born (1976-06-14) 14 June 1976
Rangoon, Myanmar
Political partyNational League for Democracy
Parent(s)Aung Kyi (father)
Yi Yi Myint (mother)
Alma materUniversity of Distance Education, Yangon
OccupationActivist
Politician
AwardsInternational Women of Courage Award (2012)
Young Global Leader (2014)[3]
Websitefacebook.com/OfficialZinMarAung

Early life and education

Zin Mar Aung was born on 14 June 1976 in Rangoon, Myanmar. She graduated with botany subject from University of Distance Education, Yangon.

Political career and movements

Zin Mar Aung while a university student in the 1990s, became active in the opposition to Burma's military government. In 1998, she was arrested at a peaceful protest rally for reading a poem and statement calling on the military government to respect the results of elections. She was detained and convicted before a military tribunal, which did not permit her to be represented by an attorney. Zin Mar Aung was sentenced to 28 years in prison. She spent 11 years as a political prisoner, nearly nine years of which was in solitary confinement.[7] In 2009, she was suddenly released from captivity[7] and she resumed her civil society activities, She created a cultural impact studies group to spread the idea that Asian culture and democracy are compatible, as well as a self-help association for female ex-political prisoners and Yangon School of Political Science.[6][8]

former First Lady Michelle Obama, Zin Mar Aung and Hillary Clinton at the 2012 International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony

Zin Mar Aung has founded a number of civil society groups dealing with democratic development, women's empowerment, ethnic tolerance, and providing assistance to former prisoners of conscience. The Rainfall group encourages greater women's participation in public life and the Yangon School of Political Science educates young Burmese about politics and democracy. In 2012 she leads an organization to raise awareness of issues affecting ethnic minorities in conflict areas. At the time, she was recognized by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a recipient of the annual “International Women of Courage Award”.[6] As of 2013 she is working with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems on women's political empowerment under the Global Women's Leadership Fund.[8][9][10]

In the 2015 Myanmar general election, she contested the Yankin Township constituency for House of Representatives and won a seat by 27,392 votes.[11]

In the 2020 Myanmar general election, re-elect House of Representatives MP for Yankin Township but was not allowed to assume her seat due to a military coup.

On 15 February 2021, in the aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, she became a member of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.

Zin Mar Aung with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in 2022

On 2 March 2021, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw named her Acting Union Minister of Foreign Affairs in its cabinet.[12]

References
  1. "Who's Who in Myanmar's National Unity Government". The Irrawaddy. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  2. "Votes Records". mypilar.org. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  3. "'Women Have Courage and Power That Is Kept Hidden'". The Irrawaddy. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  4. "Amid Coup, Myanmar's NLD Lawmakers Form Committee to Serve as Legitimate Parliament". The Irrawaddy. 8 February 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  5. The Myanmar Times. "A voice that demands to be heard". mmtimes.com.
  6. "2012 International Women of Courage Award Winners". state.gov. Archived from the original on 2014-04-28.
  7. "'What Others Dare Not Think'". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  8. "IFES - Zin Mar Aung on the Importance of Women in Peace and Politics in Myanmar". ifes.org.
  9. "'ျပန္ထြက္လာေတာ့လည္း သိတဲ့အတိုင္းပဲ ျမန္မာ့ႏိုင္ငံေရး အေျခအေနက ကဲငါတို႔မလိုအပ္ေတာ့ဘူးဆိုတဲ့ အေနအထားမ်ဳိး မဟုတ္ဘူး'". Mizzima News. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  10. Joshua Lipes (20 July 2015). "88 Generation Leader to Contest Myanmar Election Despite Pending Charges". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  11. "Zin Mar: From Prison to Parliament". Partners Asia. 29 February 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  12. "CRPH က ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီးတွေ စတင်ခန့်အပ်". BBC News မြန်မာ (in Burmese).
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