‘Revolution love’: how Myanmar protesters mix dating and demonstrations

Many Myanmar protesters have met their partners while marching against the February military coup

Pro-democracy posters and the three-fingered salute have appeared frequently in Tinder profiles after the app was restored last month

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Protesters hold hands in front of police during a demonstration in Yangon. Romances have blossomed at protest barricades across Myanmar. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 1 Jul 2021Updated: 8:00am, 1 Jul 2021

With bars closed, universities empty and hook-up apps poleaxed by internet blackouts, dating got much harder in post-coup Myanmar, but young people are still finding love – often in the heady rush of anti-junta protests.

Since the military seized power in February, ousting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ending a decade-long experiment with democracy, outrage on the streets has been met with a brutal crackdown on dissent.

“Taw Lan Yay Puu Sar” – “Revolution Love” in Burmese – is thriving among protesters who came of age during Myanmar’s flirtation with parliamentary rule, alongside the anger and despair, making and breaking relationships.

“Meeting someone at a protest is very different and I think it is more exciting,” said Zan, a 19-year-old student who met his girlfriend at an anti-junta demonstration in February.

They got chatting after he offered her some oranges during a protest. A few days later she contacted him on Facebook.

They started going to protests together, and romance blossomed against the backdrop of gunfire, burning tyres and chaos of the junta’s intensifying crackdown.