Poet Daw Khin Than Wai, also known by her pen name Wa Thone Dray, was arrested on March 27, 2021, while participating in a peaceful protest organized by poets on Pansodan Road in downtown Yangon. The demonstration was part of a broader cultural resistance movement against Myanmar’s February 1 military coup, where poets and artists used their voices—through public readings, poetry sales, and artwork—as a form of defiance. Her arrest was part of the junta’s broader crackdown on dissenting voices in the literary and artistic communities. She was released in June 2021.