AYUTTHAYA, THAILAND // Lured by easy money, an escape from poverty or family pressure, thousands of women are locked up for drug offences in Thailand, which has one of the world’s highest rates of female imprisonment.
Mai, 27, was sentenced to three years in jail after she was caught with 20 “yaba” pills — a slang term for methamphetamine known locally as “crazy medicine” -- used by tens of thousands of Thais from taxi drivers to students.
“The amount of yaba was more than was considered for personal use so I was charged with selling,” said Mai, whose boyfriend is also in prison for dealing methamphetamine.
She is serving her second stint behind bars in a prison in Ayutthaya north of Bangkok where she lives with her baby boy, and has no hope of early release in a country with one of the world’s strictest anti-drugs policies.
A three-year jail sentence for meth possession is routine in Thailand, where use of the illegal stimulant is rife.
Within Asia, the kingdom is second only to China in terms of methamphetamine seizures.
Much of the region’s meth is produced in strife-torn border areas in neighbouring Myanmar and smuggled across the border.
Thailand saw nearly 196,000 methamphetamine-related arrests in 2012, the most in Asia, according to UNODC.
Sixty-nine Thai women were also arrested for drug smuggling overseas in the same year, compared with just three men, the UN agency said.
At the prison in Ayutthaya, the walls of the children’s room are covered with drawings.
But despite the flower beds that welcome visitors and the hair salon, life is no picnic with prisoners required to carry out cleaning and other tasks, said Mai, dressed in the same light blue uniform as the 650 other inmates.
The prisoners sew beads on T-shirts for a salary of just $3 a month, with the proceeds of the sales going toward the operating budget of the prison.
In a country without a culture of socio-educational support for inmates, one Thai writer is trying to change her compatriots’ views of prison.
“We want the society to look at the prisoners as human beings. Everyone can make mistakes or be jailed as a scapegoat,” Orasom Suddhisakorn said.
Ms Orasom leads writing workshops in prisons and has already published two collections of these stories, “Facekook” -- “kook” meaning prison in Thai — that have sold several thousand copies.
The stories are familiar — of ordinary women sentenced to years in prison for a handful of yaba pills.
As a young penniless divorcee, one inmate wrote of how she sold the drug to raise her son, while another recounts how her foreign boyfriend manipulated and used her as a mule.
A third tells how she sold drugs to follow the tradition of her family, in which everyone, from her aunt to her mother, lived from meth trafficking.
At one of the workshops, attended by about 20 inmates, 23-year-old Sawapa said writing “helps me to organise my thoughts”.
“It makes me think of the past, of my family, of how I lived,” she added.
Sawapa, who was jailed for possession of 30 yaba pills, recounts being led by a neighbour into small-time dealing while she was a student.
Her mother wants her to resume her studies and eventually take over the family grocery store. But her release date is not until 2018.
This tough treatment of small-time traffickers is one reason why Thailand has one of the world’s highest rates of women prisoners.
Roughly 42,000 women are behind bars in Thailand — about 14 per cent of the total jailed population, according to the corrections department.
That compares with around nine per cent for the United States, five per cent for China and zero per cent for Liechtenstein, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies.
Nearly half of the female inmates in Thailand are serving sentences for trafficking or possession of meth.
At the Ayutthaya jail, the figure is 80 per cent, according to the prison director.
Ms Orasom, the writer, is one of the rare voices to advocate a better support for prisoners.
But some other activists are calling for a reduction of prison terms for drugs, arguing that the harsh policy — which can result in decades in jail — has failed to curb dealing.
“People get 20, 30 or 40 years when it would be three years in other countries,” said Danthong Breen of rights group Union for Civil Liberty.
* Agence France-Presse
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The specs: 2018 Audi RS5
Price, base: Dh359,200
Engine: 2.9L twin-turbo V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 450hp at 5,700rpm
Torque: 600Nm at 1,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km
The%20Kitchen
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The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
What is the definition of an SME?
SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
RESULTS
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THE DETAILS
Director: Milan Jhaveri
Producer: Emmay Entertainment and T-Series
Cast: John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee
Rating: 2/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Al Noor Special Needs Centre
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
The Internet
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