Myint Myint Khin

Myint Myint Khin (, ; 15 December 1923 – 19 June 2014) was a Burmese medical professor and writer. An English major at the University of Rangoon, she was the chair of the Department of Medicine of the Institute of Medicine, Mandalay from 1965 to 1984, and served as a consultant at the World Health Organization from 1985 to 1991. Her literary career began in 1996, spurred on by the HIV/AIDS crisis in the country. She published 11 books in Burmese and two in English. At the time of her death, the former professor was collaborating on an English language book on the history of medical education in the country.

Most of her books dealt with public health and medicine. One notable exception was her last published book in 2013, Poetry for Me, a collection of her English language poetry, which she began working on after the death of her husband Dr. San Baw, a hip replacement pioneer, in 1984. Through her books and interviews, she advocated for more openness and transparency in the country, and spoke out about the regression of women's rights in Myanmar. In 2012, she founded a daycare center for elderly physicians in Yangon.

Early life and education Myint Myint Khin was born on 15 December 1923 in Bassein (Pathein), in the Irrawaddy delta in British Burma. The oldest of three siblings, she grew up in the nearby delta town of Henzada (Hinthada), before moving to Rangoon (Yangon) as a teenager. to study English literature, and there she became "obsessed" by the works of poet John Donne. Her brother was killed by a bomb, and she had to go and retrieve her dead brother's body. After the war, she completed her original major, receiving a BA in English literature in 1946, and then promptly continued her medical education at the just reopened Faculty of Medicine, graduating with an MBBS in 1950. She graduated ahead of her husband San Baw, the medical school classmate she married in 1953 who received an MD and an MS in 1958, also from Penn Medicine. Meanwhile, she finished her training abroad by getting her FRCP from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. joining her husband who had been chief of orthopedic surgery at Mandalay General Hospital since 1957. In 1965, she was promoted to be the head of the Department of Medicine, becoming the first woman chair at the school. According to a 1967 BMJ article, she was the only female head of Department of Medicine in the country's three medical schools at the time.

She was widely respected by her colleagues and her students. According to Prof. Myint Myint Aye, the retired head of the Department of Medicine at the Institute of Medicine, Mandalay (1987–1990), her elder colleague was "widely respected for her excellent lectures and informative clinical bedside teachings", and "she recruited young graduates with promising potential and built the strongest department of medicine in Burma which produced hundreds and thousands of doctors meeting the international standard. These doctors are now not only serving Burma, but all over the world.” while Prof. Myint Myint Aye was known as "Mummy Lay" ("younger mummy".) Myint Myint Khin's description of herself was harsher: a demanding professor who could come across as "aggressive" and "abrasive".

She retired abruptly after the death of her husband of 31 years on 7 December 1984. He was placed in solitary confinement in the notorious Insein Prison, and given no contact with the outside world, including his mother.

Career abroad Now "mired in a deep personal crisis", Myint Myint Khin left the country. Frustrated by the dismissive attitude of the officials, and the low reported percentage of HIV infections in the country, she called for an expansion of general health education with "openness and transparency". To her, "the beginning of secrecy is the end of the truth."

salign = right "Our womanhood has fallen so far behind. We were once admired by our sisters in the West because of our cultural liberty, and for the freedoms that did not exist in the West at the time. But in the current state, the position of Burmese women does not reflect our traditional culture... ...This is a military-made culture; this is not Burmese culture. It is an embarrassment for us. Patriarchy has succeeded in recent years. We are now truly backward."

Myint Myint Khin maintained an active life until the last four months of her life. She also continued to voice her opinions strongly. According to Thane-Oke Kyaw Myint, a retired paediatrician and founder of the Alumni Myanmar Institutes of Medicine Association (AMIMA), "she had openly written articles in the newspapers on what was wrong with educational systems in Burma, never hesitating to openly criticise the present and the past governments, a stand that very few of us could or dare to do so publicly".

Personal life Myint Myint Khin was married to her medical school classmate San Baw from 1953 to his death in 1984. As chief of orthopedic surgery at Mandalay General Hospital, San Baw "pioneered the use of ivory hip prostheses to replace ununited fractures of the neck of the femur." Their only child Myint Zan is a former professor of law, who taught at universities in Malaysia, Australia, the South Pacific and the United States from 1989 to 2016.

Death Myint Myint Khin died on 19 June 2014 in Yangon. She had been receiving treatment for heart and kidney failures during the past four months.