THAILAND: An opportunity for women’s rights activism

Thailand experienced waves of protests demanding the resignation of the military leader turned supposedly civilian prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, and for the first time, calling for reform of Thailand’s powerful monarchy. Many of the most vocal organisers of the protests were female students, and a high proportion of protesters overall were women. For Thai feminists, protests offered a window of opportunity to bring up women’s issues, adding to the protest agenda items such as taxes on menstrual products, abortion, sexism and sexual harassment in education and outdated ideologies of femininity that force girls to conform to patriarchal expectations.