<p>Gender equality activists staged a demonstration in front of the Democrat Party headquarters on Monday (18 April) to demand accountability from the party after its former deputy leader Prinn Panitchpakdi was accused of having sexually assaulted at least 15 women.</p>

<p>For the first episode in a series on sexual violence, let&rsquo;s get to know Thailand&rsquo;s rape history with Pattarat Phantprasit, an academic historian, going from the case of Amdaeng-onsa to the present. For one hundred years the state and society have discriminated without ever changing their ideas. The &lsquo;good woman&rsquo; is still the standard used to deal with cases.&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">A Buddhist monk in Isan, Thailand’s northeast, has confessed to the rape and murder of a six-year-old boy. &nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">On 11 October 2016, the police of Mancha Khiri District in the Isan province of Khon Kaen, told media that Niran Chonyuth,<a href="https://www.khaosod.co.th/featured/news_45274"> a 36-year-old Buddhist monk</a> from Sawang Kongkaram Temple, had confessed to the rape and murder of a six-year-old boy referred to as ‘Oat’.</p>

<p>Well you can’t argue facts with an Imam, can you?&nbsp;</p> <p>There’s no need to worry about crime in Saudi Arabia, he said, and he’s been there.&nbsp; Women don’t go in fear of rape because they have the death penalty for it.&nbsp; And that is Sharia law, the law of God, which cannot be changed by man.&nbsp; So that’s alright then.</p>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The rape and murder of a child on a night train is an abominable crime and the most severe punishment available must be passed on the perpetrator. However, the angry demands for the death penalty must give pause. &nbsp;There are calls for mandatory sentencing. But mandatory sentencing is not an available punishment. “Mandatory” death penalty is a denial of humanity. </div>

<p>A campaign calling for capital punishment for rapists went viral on Thai social networks after a man confessed to raping and killing a 13-year-old girl on a train.</p> <p></p>

<p>Until two years ago, marital rape was not considered a crime in Thailand. Rape was also defined as a crime involving men and women only, thus robbing boys, transgendered women and men who were raped by men, of legal protection.</p>