Win Maw Oo ( my, ဝင်းမော်ဦး; 19 November 1971 – 19 September 1988) was a Burmese student activist who was killed during the

8888 Uprising The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(Myanmar). She is considered one of the most prominent heroes of Burma's pro-democracy movement.

Early life and education

Win Maw Oo, the eldest of six siblings, was born on 19 September 1971 in

Kyimyindaing Township Kyimyindaing Township ( my, ကြည့်မြင်တိုင် မြို့နယ်, ; also Kyeemyindaing Township, Kyimyindine, or Kyi Myin Dine, and anglicised as Kemmendine) is located in the western part of Yangon, and shares borde ...

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. She went to Basic Education High School (4), Kyimyindaing.

Death

Against her parents' wishes, she marched with her fellow classmates on 19 September 1988, carrying a picture of Independent hero Bogyoke

Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947) was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his goa ...

. She was shot by soldiers as part of the Myanmar military's crackdown on the protests, receiving two bullets in her legs and one in her chest.

Legacy

An image of Win Maw Oo's bloodied body being carried by two medical students became an emblem for the opposition against Myanmar's brutal military regime. Her sacrifice became an icon of the "88 movement". Win Maw Oo's last request was to not perform her last funeral rites until Burma enjoys democracy. 28 years later, in May 2016, one month after the democratically elected government led by

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...

came to power, her family held the last Buddhist funerary rites of Win Maw Oo. The event was widely publicized. She is the subject of a film by U Anthony which depicts her real-life events surrounding the death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Win Maw Oo 1971 births 1988 deaths Burmese democracy activists People from Yangon Region Protest-related deaths Deaths by firearm in Myanmar