Technology: Friend or Foe for Women of Myanmar Conclusion This study serves as an introductory overview of the implications of the military’s digital repression for women’s rights and gender equality in Myanmar, while acknowledging and measuring the benefits ICTs have brought for women and women’s rights organizations in the country. First, it gave an overview of the digital gender divide in Myanmar - the gap between women’s and men’s use of the internet and digital services. The ability to make use of ICTs is inextricably intertwined with, and largely governed by, women’s intersecting identities defined by age, class, ethnicity, gender, disability, geographic location (rural or urban), and socio-cultural norms. The interviewees agreed that the digital gender divide and the rural-urban divide in mobile ownership and internet access keeps widening across low- and middle-income households since the attempted coup in 2021. Affordability is a key impediment to women’s access to the internet, compounded by the restrictions on telecommunication service providers. The study found that older women from lower income households and women from conflict-affected areas are at particular risk of digital exclusion. It also highlighted the heterogeneity of women across Myanmar by noting that rural and ethnic minority women are less likely to have the opportunities to make empowered and informed choices about their ICT use compared to educated urban women. Nonetheless, more research is needed as quantitative data on the digital gender divide in Myanmar remains very limited and outdated, and data collection is risky for potential research participants. In addition, measuring the deepening digital gender divide in conflict-affected areas is important, but increasingly difficult to monitor as conflict escalates. Second, the study looked at how women and women’s rights activists use ICTs to promote political and social changes. These include raising awareness about gender stereotypes and challenging sexualization and popular misogyny using countermessages on social media platforms. The study also reviewed how ICTs aided the participation of women in the resistance movement - against all odds, as the draft Cybersecurity Law and growing digital surveillance undermine individual rights to freedom of expression, information, and privacy. The military’s violent campaign of terror against the pro-democracy movement stifles the voices of women online as it reinforces a culture of fear and silence, perpetuates self-censorship, and reduces women’s political participation in digital spaces. Further research is needed to better 57