A Myanmar doctor stripped of her medical license for posting racy photos and videos of herself has triggered a social media maelstrom of criticism and support.
Yangon-based Nang Mwe San posted on Facebook a notice from the Myanmar Medical Council revoking her license for Facebook posts with “culturally inappropriate clothing,” adding that she reneged on a promise to stop her risqué posts three months before.
“What is human right? where is democracy???” Nang Mwe San posted yesterday with the notice, which has so far amassed 15,000 reactions, 4,600 comments and 3,000 shares.
Nang Mwe San could not be reached for comment yesterday and this morning.
A Myanmar Medical Council staff member told Myanmar Mix over the phone to put any questions in a letter, and then arrange for an appointment with the vice-director who would then decide whether they want to answer the questions.
In conservative Myanmar, where many find short-skirts or revealing tops inappropriate, Nang Mwe San’s glamour photos and videos of her wearing lingerie and bikinis coupled with her medical profession have hit a nerve with some.
“You’re a doctor,” wrote one Facebook user. “Act like one and respect the profession or don’t be one at all.”
“What does this have to do with human rights and democracy?” wrote another. “Your flaunting was an insult to the profession, and you brought down your fellow medical professionals in your actions.”
A Yangon female junior doctor who did not want to be named told Myanmar Mix medical professionals are banned from having another career.
“She can be allowed to wear whatever she wants in her personal time, but on the other hand she is photo modelling, which is another career,” she said. “The medical council should have used this as a reason [to revoke the license] instead of the one they’ve given.”
Others rallied around the part-time model, who, then aged 28 in an August, 2018 interview with the Myanmar Times, said an NGO where she previously worked also warned her about her social media output, pushing her to quit.
She explained that her side vocation divided her own family, with her mother taking a more understanding view than her father and brother.
But, she said, modeling is lucrative. Junior doctors receive just a few hundred dollars per month—one of the reasons why many Myanmar medics move to other nations such as Singapore, leaving a vacuum of medical expertise.
Others—including some of her 440,307 Facebook fans—urged her to continue modelling, saying she should be free to show off her attractive shape.
Some Facebook users praised her for breaking down taboos and joked that the number of people feigning illness would spike if they were her patients.
Nang Mwe San, who originally comes from Shan state and attended Yangon’s University of Medicine 1, has yet to take the debate to Instagram, where she has 66,800 followers.
