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Published on November 18, 2007

This is very disturbing news. In the past, numerous Thai scholars and women's organisations have identified violence against women as a severe problem in this country.

Domestic violence is a significant social problem in Thailand and in Asia in general. In particular, a great deal of attention has been paid to the high rates of physical abuse that men perpetrate against their female partners and the causes of such violence.

Women may have become the heads of government in many countries in Asia - India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. This does not mean that every woman has won her rights. In spite of all the progress that women have made in most of Asia and the Middle East, they still lag behind their sisters in other parts of the world in terms of equality between the sexes.

Many Thai male political leaders have in the past advocated many women's rights laws but their efforts have been slowed down because of the prejudices of dominant male political leaders or a lack of understanding of women's rights.

The leaders in Thai business, society and politics, especially the men in power, have an inescapable duty to promote equality of the sexes. They must work hard to create a better environment and a just society to make this happen.

I am proposing a six-point approach that all Thai men, especially parents, business and political leaders, can adopt to promote an end to violent aggression against women in this country and all over Asia. The points are as follows:

l Remove all obstacles that prevent girls from going to and staying in school. If parents have limited resources to send their children to schools, send the girls first. People with money should try and sponsor girl's education in neighbouring towns.

l Principals of schools should voluntarily incorporate efforts to change attitudes on gender, show respect to women and discuss equality of men and women in a classroom setting. This should begin in primary school and extend to the media, civil society groups, government officials and social partners.

l Programmes must be put in place by people of influence at every level of society and government to educate men and boys about the importance of gender equity and shared responsibility.

l At home, parents must teach their sons to treat girls with respect and dignity. This is made easy when the father respects the mother at home and includes her in consultations and the decision-making process.

l Male youths must initiate campaigns to approach government and private institutions and pressure them to promote gender equality and raise awareness of women's rights at work. Such campaigns must be nationally recognised and evaluated.

l Ban all books and comics with abusive images. Most people cannot help noticing comic books found in bookstores or waiting rooms across the country. They are full of abusive images. Cartoons of husbands beating wives or wives beating husbands are very common. They are indeed read mostly by children. More parents must rise above this and unite to ban such books and bring dignity and respect to mothers and sisters.

No nation can develop if half of it is free and half remains chained. Therefore, a balanced strategy to bring about the equality of the sexes is a must.

Nat Yogachandra

Bangkok

Article gave balance to skewed discussion on Iran

Re: "Iran: we don't need nuclear weapons", Opinion, November 15.

I was greatly surprised by this excellent opinion piece by the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I was not surprised by its content, nor its clear objective and non-confrontational manner of presentation, but rather surprised and appreciative that The Nation took the opportunity to present this piece to readers, many of whom must be tired ... of the constant and redundant deliberate "bad mouthing" of Iran as a danger to peace.

Although Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at times hyper in his rhetoric and somewhat deserving of a bit of political bashing, on the other hand, the article showed that the democratically elected government certainly does have credible, articulate and clear-thinking members in its administration. as the foreign minister exemplified.

I am not an apologist for the Islamic Republic, but as a student of history and observer of current issues related to Islam and the Middle East, I diligently research and question issues that are propagandised by the personal ideological agendas of Bush, members of his administration and a compliant media. If anyone cares to take the time they will see that what has been put forward by the foreign minister regarding the nuclear concerns and concerns about interaction among the United States, Israel and Iran are most assuredly on the mark.

While much of the article does deal with nuclear issues, readers are astutely alerted what the real issue is from the onset: "The world expected something different in the post-Cold War era to promote peace and stability.

Instead, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, momentum swung toward a 'global war on terror' that, in practice, became the rationale for maintaining a Cold War mentality and supporting strategies of pre-emptive war and regime change that have intensified insecurity, instability and international terrorism."

Sadly, nuclear peril, once understood as a problem of absolute importance in its own right, was thus subordinated to the polarising "war on terror" and the confrontation between good and evil, was born.

Mr Bill

Bangkok

Obscured car windows pose public-safety threat

Why do Thai authorities allow tinted or "mirror" car windows, especially for windscreens and the windows in the front doors? And why do the police accept this? It must be really dangerous for them to stop and check a car if they are unable to see the driver.

There is no visual communication with drivers of cars that have their windows obscured and that is dangerous. An additional danger is the reduction in vision that having a tinted or darkened windshield poses for the drivers of these cars.

In the case of a hit-and-run accident, neither the victim nor eyewitnesses would be able to identify the driver or even say how many people were in the offender's car. And now that the government has decided to crack down on the illegal use of mobile phones in cars, how are they going to know whether someone is using a mobile in a darkened car?

I was just about to cross the street in front of a car that I had assumed was parked, when it shot forward and nearly hit me. It was during the day, there were no lights on the car and I could not hear its engine running. So how I am supposed to know if a car is parked or not when I can't see the driver?

Arild Johnsen

Bangkok

Where there's a fire, there may be a smoker

According to a Fox News report, 900 Americans die every year because of fires caused by smokers. But the report noted that smokers claim that efforts to require that cigarettes be made so that they are less likely to cause fires is "persecution".

 Get it? They're the ones being persecuted and not us who are being burned to death because of them!

Eric Bahrt

Chon Buri