A Thai government official advised women not dress “too sexy” to avoid being groped during the traditional New Year festival in April.
“It can help if women dress appropriately. Don’t dress too sexy or be alone,” Suthipong Chulcharoen, director of the Department of Local Administration, told dpa on Saturday.
“I understand that it is a personal right for people to wear as they’re pleased, but this is not the West.
“Local people are not yet familiar with such sexy outfits,” said Suthipong.
Suthipong’s remarks came after women rights groups earlier this week demanded the government better protect women during the annual festival.
Songkran, or the water festival, is celebrated each April in Thailand and other parts of South-East Asia to mark the beginning of the traditional New Year.
Participants splash water on each other using bowls, tanks, hoses or water guns.
Each year, many women in Thailand participating in the celebration have reported being groped.
More than half of all the women surveyed by the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, a Thai non-governmental organisation, were sexually harassed during the festival in 2016.
“I don’t agree with this way of thinking at all. Telling women to dress appropriately is not the right solution,” said Jaree Srisawat, a senior member of the foundation.
“From our surveys, women who covered themselves up still got groped, even a 60-year-old woman said she was touched everywhere,” Jaree said.
”The Thai society is still patriarchal. It will take a long time to change such attitude but at least the government has to protect women better,” she added. (dpa/NAN)
