Combat clothes, camouflage hat, an assault rifle over the shoulder. And the sentence: «The time has come to fight». The Facebook post by Htar Htet Htet, 32, gymnastics instructor, is going around the world. Because Htar, until a few years ago, walked the catwalks of the main beauty contests in Myanmar. In 2013 he represented his country in a competition in Thailand: then advertising and appearances on TV. Everything suggested the typical career of beauty queens. This was not the case. The coup that overthrew the government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, which ended up under house arrest, has transformed Htar Htet into a staunch activist.
On his Facebook profile, for some time, there were photographs and videos of the abuses committed by the army in countering the many mass demonstrations born to restore democracy in the country. Now the turning point of the former beauty queen, who says she is also willing to die for the cause. And that on Twitter adds to the dose, quoting Che Guevara: «Revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall. ‘
Htar Htet Htet is not the first Burmese beauty queen to take a stand against the coup. In March, during the contest in Thailand, current Miss Grand Myanmar, Han Lay (22), begged the international community to help her country. Since then she has never returned home for fear of retaliation.