Myanmar Women

When the tourists first came to gawk at the "long-necked" women of the Padaung tribe, those curious visitors were something of a curiosity themselves. "We were happy when the people came," said Lahai, one of the Padaung men living in his tribe's primitive encampment on the Thai side of the Myanmar-Thailand border. "We had never seen anyone like them, either." His observation is a small amusement in an unamusing situation. The Padaungs are not in Thailand by choice.

When the tourists first came to gawk at the "long-necked" women of the Padaung tribe, those curious visitors were something of a curiosity themselves. "We were happy when the people came," said Lahai, one of the Padaung men living in his tribe's primitive encampment on the Thai side of the Myanmar-Thailand border. "We had never seen anyone like them, either." His observation is a small amusement in an unamusing situation. The Padaungs are not in Thailand by choice.

Women in the United Methodist Church are protesting the uniforms worn by Olympic torchbearers because of the uniform maker's alleged ties to inhumane working conditions in Myanmar. The Women's Division of the country's second-largest Protestant church joined other groups in letters to the International Olympic Committee and to the uniform maker, Marker Outerware, protesting the uniforms.

The last thing Fai Charoenkul ever expected was that she would become a symbol of the scourge of Asia. A mere 15 years old, the shy, slender Fai is already married. She now appears regularly on Thai television to explain how her life was transformed when she found out in September that she had tested positive for HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, which leads to the killer disease AIDS. "I realized that all my dreams would never come true," Fai said in a recent interview with The Times.