Call to prosecute women who have sex with monks after ‘seductress' scandal
The proposal has been condemned as misogynistic and hypocritical, with critics saying it would cast women unfairly as sexual predators and monks as unwilling victims.
Warawut Tiranan, a senior Thai politician, said that laws should be changed so that women who had sex with monks could face criminal prosecution.
There are currently no penalties for women who sleep with monks or abbots. Monks are supposed to uphold their vows of celibacy and if caught up in sex scandals, face defrocking and disgrace.
Mr Warawut, the deputy chairman of a senate committee on religious affairs and ethics, suggested that the scandal, in which a 35-year-old woman is accused of blackmailing monks she slept with and extorting millions of pounds from temple funds, was a conspiracy to damage the image of Buddhism.
'This was definitely a plot to destroy Buddhism by having senior monks defrocked,' Mr Warawut said, without indicating who might be behind the conspiracy.
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 (£3,200). Monks found to have broken their vows of chastity would face the same penalties.
Wilawan Emsawat, the woman at the heart of the scandal, is accused of seducing monks and then blackmailing them with explicit photos and videos she took of their sexual acts.
She is alleged to have made millions of pounds from extorting the prelates, some of whom allegedly had sex with her while still dressed in their orange religious robes.
Ms Wilawan, who was arrested at her home on Tuesday, 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 sex photos and videos they allegedly found on her mobile phones for 'monastic unchastity'.
There is speculation that many more monks and abbots will be identified from the alleged images.
The idea of prosecuting women for their involvement in clerical sex scandals was misogynistic and unfair, critics said.
'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?' she added.
Rather than target women, Thailand's authorities should concentrate on cleaning up the corruption, greed, hypocrisy and deeply embedded 'feudalism' of the country's Buddhist clergy, she said.
She said that Ms 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.'
The scandal erupted in June after the abbot of a famous temple in Bangkok abruptly disappeared.
Ms Wilawan was said to have seduced the abbot before telling him she was pregnant and asking for 7.2m baht (£165,000) in child support.
She is alleged to have made around 385m baht (£8.8m) in the past three years, but most of the money was spent on online gambling websites, police said.
Ms Wilawan was reportedly married to a Thai politician but he is said to have left her after discovering her infidelity.
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. Around 10 monks have been defrocked so far.
Ms Wilawan has not made a statement since her arrest and it was unclear if she has legal representation. Speaking to local media before her arrest, she acknowledged one relationship and said she had given money to that monk.
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