Feminist Peace Network

Now why doesn’t this make me feel more secure?

“The Thai police will hand out whistles to female tourists after the latest in a long series of periodic sexual assaults and killings on beaches and elsewhere in the country, officials said.”

“Last week, the police arrested a 31-year-old laborer in the daytime stabbing death March 15 of a Swedish tourist, Hanna Backlund, 27, on a secluded beach in Phuket, one of the country’s leading resort areas. The laborer, Akaradech Tangae, told the police that he had tried to rape Backlund but that “she resisted and I had to kill her,” Reuters reported.

Choochart (Suwannakom, commander of the national Tourist Police) played down the recent killings, saying, “I believe security in Thailand is better than in many other countries.” He also said that some of the attacks were occasioned by the behavior of the women themselves. Under a front-page photograph of a Western woman in a skimpy bikini, The Bangkok Post quoted Choochart as saying, “They tend to choose a quiet spot away from other people, take off the bikini and sunbathe. That’s when the attackers strike.”"

Call me skeptical, but I’m thinking that whistles aren’t going to solve the problem of Thai police blaming the victim.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities, Militarism, Misogyny, Gender-Based Violence