Thai spotlight on victim-blaming

FROM a 2-year-old’s sequined T- shirt to hospital scrubs, an exhibition in Bangkok of clothes worn by girls and women when they were sexually assaulted seeks to shine a light on the victim-blaming that often accompanies such cases in Thailand.

The display is the brainchild of model and TV host Cindy Bishop, who launched a social media campaign earlier this year after a Thai official suggested women cover up to avoid assault at the popular Songkran water festival.

The hashtag #DontTellMeHowToDress went viral as women in Thailand took to social media to share their stories of being groped and harassed during Songkran in previous years.

“I picked these items from more than 50 sets of clothing of victims, to show a range of ages and types of sexual violence, and perpetrators,” Bishop said yesterday.

“It was a very emotional experience, but I wanted to show that women are not to blame – no matter what they are wearing.”

The exhibition features more than a dozen outfits worn by victims when they were assaulted by neighbours, friends, family and employers, from the shorts and sequined T-shirt of a toddler to a long “sack” dress and scrubs.

Curated by the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation (WMPMF), a rights group, it also includes photographs that tackle the stigma around female sexuality and a wall of myths and misconceptions about sexual violence.

Nearly 60% of women said they were groped during Songkran, the annual festival that marks the Thai New Year, according to a survey by the WMPMF.

Only a small number reported these incidents to police.

Bishop said she was assaulted by a group of men during Songkran when she was a teenage girl more than two decades ago.

She was inspired by an installation last year at the University of Kansas titled “What were you wearing?” to keep the conversation going.

The past year has been pivotal for women’s rights after accusations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein sparked the #MeToo campaign, with women taking to social media and the streets to highlight experiences of abuse.

That campaign failed to make much of a mark in Thailand, but months before, a student created a stir when she wrote a Facebook post about being assaulted by another student.

Thararat Panya said she did not report her attacker to the police because the process was complex, and because the police were unsympathetic and judgemental, often blaming the victim.

“It is a big problem, but no one talks about it,” she said.

“I wanted to encourage other victims of sexual abuse to speak out without shame or guilt.”

In Thailand, nearly 90% of rape cases go unreported to police, and rape is sometimes legitimised based on a woman’s past sexual history, according to a study published last year by UN Women.

“This is not going to be solved with a social media campaign and an exhibit,” said Bishop.

“But people are more ready to talk about it now.” – Thomson Reuters Foundation