Aung San Suu Kyi and Neda Soltan

Women have indeed suffered disproportionately under both Burma's brutal military regime and inside Ahmadinejad's Iran, but their struggles are different, too. As with most crises Burma-related, the initial global outcry against Aung San Suu Kyi's sham trial has been followed by near total silence and certainly without any reform or movement forward on the part of the ruling junta. UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari returned from the country Saturday completely empty-handed -- a troubling sign in advance of UN Secretary General Ban's upcoming visit, ostensibly to secure Suu Kyi's freedom.

And in the days and weeks that have followed the incarceration of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, the regime has skillfully killed the story by dragging out the judicial proceedings, currently delayed until July 3rd. Most have forgotten about Suu Kyi -- whose 5,000th consecutive day under arrest is this Sunday -- and may not even know her trial is still going on.

Iran, of course, has a much more prominent place on the US foreign policy agenda, and the plight of Neda Soltan should serve as a springboard to a more nuanced understanding of how women have suffered inside Iran. Whether this translates to actual reform remains to be seen, but given the general prominence of the country in the news cycle, there's also less need to rely on female symbols of suffering.

Burma, alas, simply does not have the same bandwidth. The forced rape and widespread violence against Burmese women is not an unknown fact, but it happens in a country whose location and government most folks can't pinpoint. Suu Kyi, beyond the practical political alternative that she represents, is one of the only flags that the Burmese human rights movement has been given thus far. So they have no choice but to wave it as long as they can.