Buddhist nuns, Ma Than Htay, also known by her Buddhist name as Mar Lar Yee and Ma Tin Tin Oo, also known as Thayzawaddy, were arrested on 16 January 2003 for staging a peaceful demonstration in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. They are serving sentences of thirteen years’ imprisonment. The peaceful exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly is strongly restricted in Myanmar, and when individuals engage in symbolic acts of dissent, such as peaceful demonstrations, these are often construed by authorities as attempts to incite unrest, and penalized with terms of imprisonment
