YANGON, MYANMAR
I think mainly about my daughter. I want to give her the safety—and I feel like living abroad might be safer and offer her a better education. I want my daughter to grow up in a developed country and attend school abroad. I recently inquired about going to school in Canada. It might possible to enroll her in a school and for me to apply for a resident’s permit. I have always wanted to settle in a foreign country but I haven’t been able to until now.
I love being a lawyer because it requires me to learn all the time—about related subjects and about my country. For my daughter, being a lawyer provides a good image as a mother. Parents might work all kinds of jobs like vendors or shopkeepers. But I want to stand up as a role model of what a mother can be for my daughter. I’d say this is the main reason I like my job.
I am a single mother. Our society doesn’t like the idea of divorce. They don’t want us to be separated in Myanmar tradition. Usually people want to blame me—the woman’s side—saying that I was not good at maintaining the marriage. The truth is, [prior to the divorce] I had to take care of my daughter alone and faced so many challenges. For a while after I divorced her father, me and my daughter alone. Now we live with my mom and dad.