Bar ban for Bangkok women

Police say the bar ban is to clamp down on prostitution

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Women arriving at a Bangkok bar without a man may face being turned away, or worse still, arrested.

Thai police have invoked 40-year-old legislation that will allow bars to refuse women -- either arriving alone or with their female friends -- from entering.

Police in the Thai capital have sent letters to owners of entertainment venues setting out existing regulations and reactivating the antiquated law aimed at curbing prostitution, The Nation newspaper reported on Thursday.

"We're looking on a case-by-case basis, but at some bars and discos, if we think something will happen with women by themselves, we'll give a warning," police spokesman Pongsapat Pongcharoen told Reuters news agency.

"We're looking at the bars which have women going in to get men customers and going out to have sex."

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The bar clampdown follows in the wake of a controversial social order campaign introduced by the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last year.

The campaign is seeking to crack down not only on prostitution, but on illegal weapons and under-age drinking.

As part of that campaign, the government enforced the early closure of bars and other venues across Thailand, winning them widespread public support.

'Come for fun'

But the bar ban has outraged women's rights activists who say the law is outdated, sexist and impossible to implement fairly.

"How will police decide if we come for fun or sell sex, how can they define it," Surang Janyam of Empower, a group representing women workers in the entertainment industry, said to Reuters news agency.

"Anyway, men are the ones who come to bars to find women, not other way around."

Her opinion has been echoed by other activists.

"This is the biggest joke I have ever heard," Women's Rights Protection Center spokeswoman Supensri Puengkoksoong told The Nation newspaper.

"People just want to relax in such places and the government is treating them as if they all are criminals. Doesn't the gender equity clause in the constitution mean anything to the government?"

Human Rights Commissioner Naiyana Supapueng has also slammed the directive as discriminatory, telling the daily that she would raise it with her panel if any women were arrested.