For over 80 years, a heavy veil of silence has covered one of the most brutal chapters of World War II: the systematic sexual enslavement of over 200,000 women and girls in Southeast Asia by the Japanese Imperial Army. They were euphemistically called “Comfort Women”, but there was NOTHING comforting about military sexual slavery. Many were teenagers who were abducted and brought to “comfort stations” where they were raped around the clock by soldiers in occupied territories.

On 13 February, a self-proclaimed spiritual healer known as “Lung Sanom” from Angthong, Central Thailand 🇹🇭 was caught sexually harassing several women who sought him out for healing. But what is equally disturbing is the wave of victim-blaming that followed. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗲: first through the shaman who exploited them, then by the public who blamed them for their beliefs. Instead of holding the perpetr