Myanmar Doctor’s Medical License Revoked Due to Bikini FB Images; Intends to Appeal

I remember my boss telling us this a while ago: “Whatever you all do outside of work is none of my business.”

“But what if I were to wear a bikini and post the image on Facebook?” I asked.

“You’re a guy, my friend,” he replied.

“But I’m fat,” I said and left it at that.

Suffice to say, here in Singapore, employers usually don’t care what we do outside of work: we can be donning red underwears to save the world and there won’t be any consequences as long as they don’t compromise our work.

But not Dr Nang Mwe San from Myanmar.

The photogenic doctor’s medical license has been suspended since 3 June 2019, and the reason for that?

Her bikini images.

Doctor Turned Model

28-year-old Nang Mwe San was a general physician (those doctors in clinics) for four years, but left the medical industry to purse a modeling career since two years ago.

And it shows: a glance at her Facebook Page, which has well over 500K followers, would cause any straight male’s nose to bleed.

According to media reports, she has been warned in January this year for the images, and had allegedly promised to stop posting revealing images online.

However, on 3 June 2019, she received a letter from the Myanmar Medical Council.

She has been banned from medical practice because that did not “not fit with Burmese tradition”.

The model posted the letter on her Facebook Page with the English caption “What is human right? where is democracy???”

Response

Mwe San wasn’t happy with the decision. When contacted, she said, “I was shocked and very sad. To be a doctor, it was a long struggle… Did I dress in sexy outfits when I was meeting my patients? Never.”

Since then, she has been active to airing her views on Facebook.

In fact, she even shared an article by Channel NewsAsia about this issue on her Facebook Page (Facebook is very popular in Myanmar):

So far, she has not contacted the council, but she intended to do so to appeal against their decision.

She added, “There are many important ethical issues in Myanmar’s medical sector. I don’t want them wasting time taking care of minor issues like my modelling…But whatever I’m facing, I won’t give up my modelling profession.”