Beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence: women endure torture in Myanmar prisons

Female detainees in Myanmar are enduring severe torture, sexual violence and inadequate medical care in prisons following a military coup in February 2021, Human Rights Watch reported on Wednesday. The rights group highlighted the widespread ill-treatment of thousands of detainees in the war-torn Southeast Asian nation, which has suffered from a protracted civil war and resulted in approximately 100,000 deaths and the displacement of over 3.5 million people.

According to a report by the New York-based organization, more than 6,600 women, including former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 640 children, are among the over 30,000 political prisoners detained since the coup. Bryony Lau, the Asia deputy director of Human Rights Watch, stated that the women's accounts paint a "deeply disturbing picture" of a prison system where suffering and neglect are both deliberate and routine.

Myanmar's military-backed government, which took power after a controversial election, did not respond to a request for comment. Prison authorities reportedly beat detainees with sticks, chains, metal pipes, and catapults, as well as subjecting them to electric shocks, cigarette burns, prolonged stress positions, and sexual violence.

The human rights organization's report was based on interviews with 17 former female detainees, including activists, journalists, aid and healthcare workers, family members, and lawyers. The detainees claimed they were prosecuted under various criminal codes, such as a post-coup law to punish opposition and dissent and a counterterrorism law.

While Reuters was unable to independently verify the accounts, they align with a 2025 United Nations report documenting torture in Myanmar detention facilities, which detailed instances of beatings, electric shocks, strangulation, gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence. At least 74 political prisoners between the ages of 18 and 35 have died in detention since the coup, with some deaths attributed to alleged inadequate medical treatment and harsh interrogations, according to Reuters' January report.

Prison authorities consistently denied access to necessary medical care for serious chronic and acute conditions, and some pregnant women were denied such access, with some giving birth inside their cells. One former prisoner recounted that her water broke at midnight, but a hospital referral letter only arrived at 10 am, and she was left with chains on her feet immediately after giving birth.