Today marks International Women's Day, and while there are many good causes to celebrate, the situation remains far from perfect for many embattled housewives and other women and girls in Thailand.
Many women have experienced a great leap forward in their careers in recent years -- and it's fair to say women here have gained a greater foothold in society overall -- yet a huge number still fall prey to domestic violence meted out by family members, often their husbands or boyfriends.
In fact, not a single week seems to go by without some kind of gruesome news. On Monday, we heard reports that a man called Pisuitsiri had stabbed his girlfriend and set her body on fire before dumping the body at a wastewater treatment facility in the Bang Pu Industrial Estate in Samut Prakan province. Back in 2007, the same man made national headlines after threatening, in public, to slit his throat after his former girlfriend refused to reconcile with him.
Within a two-year span, no fewer than 372 news stories related to domestic violence and crimes against women appeared in 11 national newspapers and online news sites, according to a report by the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation. It was unveiled at a seminar in Bangkok yesterday titled, "16th year since the enactment of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act 2007".
What is scary is this equates to one case every two days -- and these are only the cases that get reported, whereas the general consensus suggests most are not.
Among those 372 stories, 195 involved an intra-family homicide, 57 a murder among spouses or couples, 45 were crimes of passion by jealous men, and the remainder occurred after women refused to reconcile with their partners. Of the total, 27 cases involved young women getting beaten up by their boyfriends.
While there are many factors cited for violence against women, such as the abuse of alcohol, narcotics or even plain old misogyny, the onus falls on those who have only weakly enforced the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act 2007.
This legislation was drafted about two decades ago as a systematic solution. Instead, it has proven to be part of the problem.
In 16 years, few attackers have been locked up, partly because law enforcers take pains to help the aggressors and victims reconcile.
And even when the former have been charged, the courts and law enforcers often try to convince both parties to settle and mend fences. They tend to see reconciliation and family unity as a priority. But sadly, this does little to end the culture of violence. In some cases, the beaten wife has returned to their family and been more severely injured or even killed. Without decisive enforcement, the attackers can be emboldened.
The unabating surge of violence against women serves as a stark reminder of how the government and policymakers have not made this problem a national priority. Many officials still perceive it as more of a family problem than a crime per se. As the general election is fast approaching, almost no political party is campaigning to ramp up the penalties for wife-beating.
It's about time the government and society take a stand against domestic violence and violence against women in general. Instead of focusing on reconciliation, officials must treat these as the criminal cases they are.
Without a firm commitment to ending this entrenched problem, women will never really feel truly safe.
