As a mother, the news that grabbed my attention over the weekend had nothing to do with the politics that are near the boiling point. It was about a boy gang rape.
A nightmare for any parent, the incident involved three boys, aged 8, 11 and 12, raping a 7-year-old girl neighbour.
The boys said they just wanted to copy the porn they saw in the Internet shop. They are now staying at a remand home where social workers have yet to decide whether they should be returned to their poor parents, who cannot provide them proper care.
The news focus is on the boys as an indicator of the moral decline in society. Nothing has been said about the need to help the girl overcome the rape trauma.
This horrifying news came on the heels of a Thammasat University sex scandal involving a male lecturer who offered a girl student better grades in exchange for oral sex.
To terrify us parents further, the newspapers told us the next day that a 4-year-old girl had been raped by her step-uncle.
These horrifying news reports have triggered several demands from so-called experts. Among them: Get tough with Internet shops. Get rid of porn. Tell parents to shape up.
This is blaming the victims. 
Where can poor kids in Bangkok go when the government fails to give them recreational facilities?
How can poor parents keep close watch on their children when they have to struggle to make ends meet?
How can the boys know rape is a heinous crime when the hottest soap opera on TV now says rape is okay, when the law allows rapists to get away with murder by marrying the victims, and when men in authority rarely get punished for their sexual crimes?
What to do to protect our girls? I was pondering this question while waiting for my daughter in front of her ballet class.
My thoughts were broken by a shriek from a women beside me.
“What are you chewing?,” she shouted at her little niece who became white as paper. “Who gave you the sweets? Haven’t I told you time and time again never to take any treats from strangers? Do you want to be drugged and never return home again?”
Startled by her own loud voice, she turned to me and mumbled apologetically. “You know how dangerous it is nowadays, don’t you?"
I nodded, feeling deeply guilty. It’s wrong rob our children’s of trust in others. But haven’t I, too, told my girl not to trust the world in order to protect her?
I remember the incredible peace I felt while sitting all alone in the fields, spellbound by the world of plants when I was a little girl. Or when I was mesmerised by the ever-changing clouds in the skies as I walked home alone from school.
Would I allow my little girl to go out in the fields or to walk home alone now?
Never.
Am I robbing my girl of the precious solitude that is an important bridge to our inner self?
Sorry, love. But the way society is going now, mums have no choice.

Like most Thais, I believed that there have never been female monks, or Bhikkhuni, in Thailand. How I was wrong!

The person who opened my eyes was Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni, a Buddhist teacher and abbess of the Dhammadharini Vihara, a temple for female monastics in Fremont, California.

As a scholar on Bhikkhuni history and Vinaya, Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni has done an extensive research on female ordination in Southeast Asia. So when I wrote in one of my articles that Thailand, unlike Sri Lanka, had never had a Bhikkhuni clergy, she kindly emailed me to tell a different story.

Contrary to mainstream belief, there is much evidence about the Bhikkhuni clergy in old Siam and nearby countries from the 3rd century BC up to modern times, she said.

The oldest document, dating back to the Ashokan period, states that a mission led by Arahanta Theras Sona and Uttara travelled to Suvarnabhumi where they ordained "3,500 men and 1,500 women, establishing the Buddhadhamma".

This important historical journey is recorded in the Pali texts as well as in the ancient Sri Lankan chronicles, which were later translated into Chinese.

The Chinese version, in particular, specifies that the 3,500 noblemen were ordained as Bhikkhu and the 1,500 noblewomen as Bhikkhuni.

Closer to home, this historical Buddhist mission also appears in the old records of Nakhon Si Thammarat, believed by many to be the entry point of Buddhism into our region.

This is exciting information. Powerful information.

You see, the clergy's main argument against female ordination is that we never had Bhikkhuni in Thailand. They also argue that since the Theravada Bhikkhuni lineage has been long extinct, it is impossible to have Bhikkhuni in the Thai Theravada clergy.

No need asking the clergy to ordain women. They insist that a legitimate female ordination, according to the monastic discipline, must be performed both by monks and Bhikkhuni.

The clergy's arguments, however, crumble with historical evidence of the Ashokan Buddhist mission. They not only show that we used to have Bhikkhuni, they also confirm that dual ordination is not necessary where Bhikkhuni does not exist, that monks alone can ordain women to set up the Bhikkhuni clergy.

There's more. There are later ancient texts that make reference  to the existence of  Bhikkhuni in the Lanna and Sukhothai kingdoms. For example, there are old records in Lanna literature about two Bhikkhuni believed to be local women. There are also Sukhothai period evidence of Bhikkhuni who were ordained by monks alone, she said.

The Bhikkhuni Sangha in old Siam came to a halt when the Ayutthaya kingdom rose to power. "The previous Bhikkhu and Bhikkhuni Sangha was made to cease to exist for political reasons and a new Bhikkhu Sangha was founded with royal support," said Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni.

Her message: Don't say Thailand never had a Bhikkhuni clergy. To be precise, say Thailand has never had a Bhikkhuni Sangha, with dual ordination, established and supported by the monarchy, since the founding of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya.

Now we know.

If facts cannot dismantle the prejudice against female ordination, what can?