Thai politicians propose prosecuting women for having sex with monks amid a blackmail scandal. Photo / Getty Images
Thai politicians propose prosecuting women for having sex with monks amid a blackmail scandal. Photo / Getty Images
Women should be prosecuted for having sex with monks, Thai politicians have proposed, after a nationwide scandal over an alleged “blackmailing seductress”.
At least nine monks have been disrobed for allegedly having sex with a woman accused of subsequently extorting them for millions.
A committee in the Senate has proposedamending the law to allow for the criminal prosecution of women who engage in sexual relations with monks.
Wilawan Emsawat has been charged with laundering money, receiving stolen goods and embezzling temple funds. Photo / Supplied
Warawut Tiranan, a senior Thai politician who called for the law change, accused the woman at the centre of the scandal of seeking to damage the reputation of Buddhism.
“This was definitely a plot to destroy Buddhism by having senior monks defrocked,” Warawut said.
Critics have called the proposal misogynistic, arguing it would cast women unfairly as sexual predators and monks as unwilling victims.
Wilawan Emsawat, the woman at the heart of the scandal, is accused of seducing monks and then blackmailing them with explicit photos and videos.
There is speculation that many more monks and abbots will be identified from the alleged images. Photo / Supplied
She is alleged to have made millions of dollars from extorting the monks, some of whom allegedly had sex with her while still dressed in their orange religious robes.
The scandal erupted in June after the abbot of a well-known temple in Bangkok abruptly disappeared.
Wilawan was said to have seduced the abbot before telling him she was pregnant and asking for 7.2 million baht (about NZ$370,000) in child support.
She is alleged to have made about 385m baht (almost NZ$20m) in the past three years, most of which was spent on online gambling sites, police said.
Wilawan was reportedly married to a Thai politician, who is said to have left her after discovering her infidelity.
There are currently no penalties for women who sleep with monks or abbots. Monks are supposed to uphold vows of celibacy and, if caught in sex scandals, face defrocking and disgrace.
Critics argue the proposal is misogynistic, unfairly casting women as predators and monks as victims. Photo / Getty Images
Ittiporn Chan-iam, director of the National Office of Buddhism, said that women who had sex with monks should face up to seven years in prison and fines of up to 140,000 baht. Monks found to have broken their vows of chastity would face the same penalties.
Wilawan, who was arrested at her home this week, has been charged with laundering money, receiving stolen goods and embezzling temple funds.
But the investigation is now widening as police scrutinise the 80,000 photos and videos they allegedly found on her mobile phones for evidence of “monastic unchastity”.
There is speculation that many more monks and abbots will be identified from the alleged images.
However, critics say the idea of prosecuting women for their involvement in clerical sex scandals is unfair.
“Women have long been depicted in mainstream teachings as ‘enemies’ of monks’ spiritual purity. Some temple murals even show them as snakes. And now, when the clergy’s moral decay is in full view, it’s the woman who takes the fall while the monks are cast as victims,” columnist Sanitsuda Ekachai wrote in the Bangkok Post.
“Give me a break. Isn’t it the monks who broke their vows of celibacy?”
Rather than target women, she said Thailand’s authorities should concentrate on cleaning up the corruption, greed, hypocrisy and the deeply embedded “feudalism” of the country’s Buddhist clergy.
She said Wilawan had been portrayed as “a scheming gold digger who preyed on rich monks with promises of large donations. Then, after gaining intimacy, she blackmailed them. This makes for juicy headlines, but it also reveals something darker: the deep misogyny embedded in Thai Buddhism”.
At least a dozen Buddhist temples are now under investigation, according to Major General Charoonkiat Pankaew, deputy commissioner of the cybercrime investigation bureau of the Royal Thai Police. At least nine monks have been defrocked so far.
Wilawan has not made a statement since her arrest, and it was unclear whether she had legal representation. Speaking to media before her arrest, she acknowledged one relationship and said she had given money to that monk.
