Verse: filmmaking for women's rights in Myanmar ^{CEFR B1}

After the 2021 coup, local media and rights groups came under new pressure. Exile Hub expanded at that time to support journalists and human rights defenders, and it later helped fund some film projects.

Verse began as a reporter in 2018 but left because of gender bias at work. For one major assignment, male reporters were sent to Nay Pyi Taw while she was told to remain behind. She refused to accept a workplace that blocked her growth and joined a women’s rights organisation to focus on feminist issues.

Her commitment grew from family example. Her grandmother, a Rakhine woman who ran a sawmill, quietly defied gender norms and taught Verse about dignity. Verse studied at Yangon Film School in 2020; after she raised a complaint about an inappropriate comment, the school adopted its first zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy.

Verse uses film to centre unseen women. Her animated Exit addresses stigma, violence and criminalisation of sex workers. She received a Critical Voices production grant through Exile Hub in 2022 and later won a Feminist Storytelling Grant to make a documentary called Fight for Freedom.