Pray against intolerance in the far South

Pray against intolerance in the far South

Being a teenager is hard. Being a teenager in the deep South is harder. Being an LGBT teenager is also hard. And being an LGBT teenager in the deep South is even harder, sometimes the hardest.

The ground shook last week with the eruption of a debate over Pattani's "Sexuality Classroom", a case that went under-reported in the mainstream news.

In the pyramid of angst and matrix of social condition, the issue of sexuality in the predominantly Muslim South represents a barbed intersection of culture, history, religion, human rights, on top of the tremors of violence and uncertainty over the fate of the region and its people.

It started with a documentary aired on Thai PBS last week (it was briefly available on YouTube before it was taken down).

The 20-minute clip centres on "Gender, Human Rights and Sexuality Classroom", an initiative of Anticha Sangchai, a philosophy lecturer at Prince of Songkla University's Pattani Campus.

Ms Anticha has organised the class at Buku Bookshop in Pattani since 2013 to "provide a safe zone for the discussion of gender and sexuality to those in conflict areas, because the issue of women's health and sexual violence has been swept under the rug for a long time".

In the documentary, she talks about the power structure shaping the condition and limiting rights and space for women and LGBTI groups -- in any society.

Since July last year, Ms Anticha has also run Buku FC, a football team that puts together men, women (hijab-wearing or not) and LGBTI -- a weekly exercise as well as a symbolic assertion of physicality and space by women and LGBTI.

The classroom and football club aren't new. But the documentary, with its juxtaposition of Ms Anticha's messages and scenes from the deep South, comes across in the minds of those with different views as a form of provocation to traditions, norms and Islamic teachings.

Arguments flew in both directions, and the bomb dropped when well-known Pattani scholar Chokchai Wongtanee wrote on his Facebook page: "Playing football in a private space is fine, but don't teach people to become homosexual in Pattani. Stop it."

That post sparked debate and rant, solemn reasoning and pure hate speech.

In a region that demands an end to discrimination, no one wishes to see that. In a place so battered by physical and structural violence, what's happened is nothing short of discouraging. In a region that advocates self-determination, the spectre of collective judgement looms.

I was in Pattani briefly this week and Ms Anticha told me that after the story broke, there was a "witch-hunt attempt" as the images of the members of her football team were spread through Line accompanied by disturbing messages. She feared the worst. "If the whole thing had happened in Bangkok, it would be one thing. But when [the spread of images and threats] happened here, where violence isn't uncommon, it was something else."

Mr Chokchai, who posted that controversial rebuke, later softened his tone. "If I'm wrong, I apologise for my view. If I'm right, may everything that goes against the principles of Islam, Buddhism and other faiths disappear from Pattani."

He also spoke to me briefly yesterday saying that since he has said sorry, the matter should be put to rest. Most importantly, Mr Chokchai warned against the use of violence in any form.

Scholars and human rights activists have since weighed in -- on both sides -- and everyone is fully aware that this debate is strewn with sensitive hot-button issues and theological cliff-hangers that link the Pattani controversy to the larger, global discussion of Islam and its place in the modern world.

Human rights activist Angkhana Neelapaijit wrote sympathetic messages on her Facebook stressing compassion. "Men don't judge others. Leave that to God," she said, begging that no harm should fall on the girls of the football team shown in the documentary.

On the other hand, those who see it differently cite the importance of faith and tradition observed in the Muslim society of Pattani.

The South is wracked with trouble. But the case of classroom sexuality and Buku Football Club is a test case in the byzantine clash of religion and rights, tradition and patience, the law of God and the interpretation of men (usually men).

At least everyone has issued a plea for common humanity, which is integral to the path of co-existence and peace.

The rug has flipped open, now it's time to make sense of what's inside -- and pray for reason, inclusion and yes, tolerance.

Kong Rithdee is Life Editor, Bangkok Post.

Kong Rithdee

Bangkok Post columnist

Kong Rithdee is a Bangkok Post columnist. He has written about films for 18 years with the Bangkok Post and other publications, and is one of the most prominent writers on cinema in the region.

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