In September 2023, I packed up and left Thailand after receiving an Erasmus Mundus scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in Sports Ethics and Integrity. This means I’ll be spending the next two years travelling to various countries in the EU to study modules on anti-doping, disability, safeguarding, sports philosophy, and sports governance.

During the first month of my very first semester, I was encouraged to submit an abstract for Play The Game, a sports integrity conference which brings together athletes, academics journalists and other stakeholders in sports to share insights, debate integrity issues and work towards raising ethical standards. I was urged to take part as a journalist, submitting an abstract to share what I’ve learned through my years of covering gender issues in Muay Thai, and specifically through my advocacy as an athlete-survivor. My abstract was accepted, and I was lucky enough to travel to Trondheim, Norway this month to present my work.

My Presentation: Gender Inequality and Sexual Violence in Muay Thai

My presentation was part of an hour-long session entitled Sexual Violence, Power and Corruption: How to Support Survivors. It was chaired by Tine Vertommen, criminologist, researcher, and consultant to the International Olympic Committee’s Safe Sport Unit. 

I was joined by other panelists who are working to eliminate sexual violence in sports and provide solutions for survivors. First, Sylvain Croteau from Sport’Aide in Quebec spoke about what the organisation is doing to support survivors, raise awareness, and collaborate with sports organisations to handle abuse cases in youth sports. Camilla Clausse-Pujo, Sport Project Manager at France Victimes, described how sports organisations should work with victim support services to provide trauma-informed care. Whitney Bragagnolo, a PhD researcher and president of the alumni for my master’s programme in sports ethics and integrity, presented her research findings on sextortion in sports. Journalist Murali Krishnan also spoke about the plight of Indian wrestlers who have faced backlash after protesting against sexual harassment and abuse.

I opened my presentation with a brief introduction to the sport and culture of Muay Thai, laying out the rituals and traditions that make it so uniquely captivating. I also noted that as a woman, I have a complicated relationship with these aspects of the sport, because while they are part of what made me fall in love with Muay Thai, some of them have also held up barriers for me. This led me to the practices of excluding women from Bangkok’s most prestigious stadiums (until 2021) and having women enter the ring by crawling underneath the bottom rope, both of which are rooted in taboos about menstruation. 

I gave an overview of the development of women’s Muay Thai in Thailand, and the progress that’s been made with women’s inclusion and representation in the sport. This involved highlighting some problems along the way, including the beauty-focused fight promotions of the 2010s and the beauty pageants for female fighters that were held by Muay Siam magazine, all of which celebrated women for their appearance rather than their skills or abilities as fighters. 

I then told the story of Under the Ropes, and how I created it to discuss gendered issues in Muay Thai, fill the gap in women’s Muay Thai history, and build community with other women in the sport. Pivotal to this story was my experience of sexual assault by a trainer when I first discovered the sport, and how I went public with it in a 2017 blog post. I described how this led me to become an advocate and point of contact for other survivors, and how I now connect them to survivor-centred organisations which can help them heal and get access to justice. While I’m happy to do this work, its existence shows a glaring lack of responsibility and accountability by Muay Thai organisations, because it shouldn’t be the case that I am one of the only people that these survivors feel they can turn to for assistance. During my years of advocacy, I’ve continued to come up against the same victim-blaming narratives, in response to other survivor’s stories as well as my own. To illustrate this, I showed some translated comments from a Thai ‘meninist’ group, which came in response to Mirror Thailand’s 2023 article about my work. These comments had some typical themes. 

The first was ‘what did she expect?!’, indicating that Muay Thai is still seen as a ‘men’s space, where I should have been grateful to be accepted, where sexual violence was simply a logical response to my presence. Other commenters couldn’t seem to believe that a fighter wouldn’t be able to protect herself, which goes to show how little public understanding there is about how sexual violence happens. Some also said I should have just reported and I would have been protected, which goes to show that people don’t understand why survivors don’t report, and what that process is like. This is exactly why I continue speaking out.

I noted that it’s easy for sexual violence in sport to be normalised this way when consequences for it aren’t, and that Muay Thai gyms, organisations and federations have given little to no recognition or response to the issue. In fact, the survivors I’ve spoken to have often faced more consequences than perpetrators, with some being threatened with defamation lawsuits or having to change gyms. Some have been told that if they speak out, they’d be unable to fight in certain areas or for certain titles, which means that they’d be effectively blacklisted. However, no such blacklist exists for perpetrators. 

I wanted to make it clear that this problem is not unique to Thailand, and that I’ve been contacted by survivors in many different countries. I’ve also highlighted several cases of abusive Muay Thai instructors in the UK, although these have only come to light when they’ve become criminal cases. There are many, many more that never reach that stage. When I highlight cases in Thailand, I often receive responses from Westerners condemning Thai men, or implying that the degradation of women is inherent to Thai culture. I emphasised that this is not a problem with Thai culture, but rape culture, which exists in every country, society, and industry. “If you think that sexual violence isn’t a problem in your community, you’re mistaken”, I said. “You have survivors in your life, whether you know it or not. For each one who has disclosed, there are many more who haven’t”. This is not only an issue with Muay Thai, but with anywhere that women and girls are told that certain spaces are not for them. As a result, they constantly feel as though they have to prove that they’re ‘good enough’ or ‘tough enough’ to be accepted, and those who are accepted have to uphold the status quo. This creates a culture of silence, in which it’s almost impossible to speak out about harassment and abuse.

In order to move from a culture of silence to a culture of accountability, we need to make sure that the onus is not on survivors to address the problem. The responsibility lies with those in power, and the same goes for the guilt and shame that survivors often feel. These burdens are not ours to carry. They belong not only to the perpetrators, but also the enablers and bystanders who allow sexual violence to go unchecked. I called for Muay Thai organisations to implement safeguarding policies with punitive and protective measures to hold perpetrators accountable and keep athletes safe, but noted that this problem can’t be adequately addressed until it’s measured. There is currently no hard data on sexual harassment and abuse in Muay Thai, which makes it easy to dismiss individual stories when they come up. A first step towards making Muay Thai safer for everyone would be to listen to the voices of survivors and to honour and collect their stories. This is what I aim to address through my studies in sports ethics and integrity. Perhaps one day, I’ll be able to present my findings to a similar audience.

Finding My People

Immediately after my session, I was approached by Dr. Zoe John, who, much to my surprise, told me that she’d been following my blog for 10 years! The previous day, she’d presented her PhD research findings on gender and violence in MMA (her slides are available online). You can also read her recent article for The Conversation, In Sport, Abuse is Often Dismissed as ‘Good Coaching’. It was immediately clear that we’d get along, and we continued to meet up during the rest of our time there to watch presentations and escape the hotel to walk around Trondheim and shop for Norwegian snacks. Zoe also introduced me to her colleague Dr. Victoria Silverwood, who has been researching violence in ice hockey for more than 15 years and also presented her fascinating work at the conference. 

Women Making Sports Safer

There were many more incredible women at Play The Game who shared their inspiring stories and important work on abuse in sports. Joanna Maranhão, an Olympic swimmer and graduate of my master’s programme, opened the conference with a keynote speech on navigating her experience of trauma as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her coach, which received a well-deserved standing ovation. Later, she also spoke about her work at Sport and Rights Alliance, where she’s building a network of survivors and a much-needed fund to provide psychological and legal aid. She urges sports organisations to centre survivors in every conversation about abuse and harassment, and emphasises the importance of compensating them for their time and efforts. “Enough with asking survivors to work for free”, she said. “Elevate their voices, honour their wisdom, put their needs first. And compensate them for their time and expertise”. I couldn’t agree more.

Julie Ann Rivers-Cochran, Executive Director of The Army of Survivors, also emphasised the need to compensate survivors. TAOS’ does crucial work to provide resources and education to keep child athletes safe, and advocate for transparent and trauma-informed reporting systems. In her presentation, Julie Ann noted that TAOS doesn’t name perpetrators, as they don’t deserve the fame their crimes bring them, instead choosing to name the institutions that enabled them and the survivors they impacted. She encouraged sports organisations to show institutional courage by creating trauma-informed and consent-based spaces in which athletes can feel safe to share their concerns and experiences. 

Kim Shore, co-founder of Gymnasts for Change Canada, talked about the work she’s doing to keep athletes safe from abuse. Like me, she also pointed out that the responsibility to address abuse in sports often lies with the survivor rather than with institutions. “We keep pushing survivors to come forward rather than radically overhauling our broken systems”, she said. International lawyer Ingrid Beutler emphasizes the fact that international sports federations have a duty of care to provide options for remedy for all types of abuse, and called for her fellow lawyers to use their pro-bono time to assist in this area. These talks were part of a session entitled In the ‘Aftermath of Abuse: Where Can Athletes Find Remedy?’, which is available to watch online.

Many more activists and changemakers took the stage. Sports journalist Shireen Ahmed shared some hard truths about her experience as a Muslim woman in sports media, and even shared recommended readings to encourage audience members to reckon with their own biases (watch her presentation here, 38:30 minutes in). In a session on political neutrality in sport, Friba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, talked about the exclusion of women from sports and education in her country, and urged the IOC to ban Afghanistan until women are allowed to play. Saudi activist Lina al-Hathloul gave a compelling speech about human rights abuses in Saudia Arabia, including the story of her sister Loujain, who was kidnapped and imprisoned by the Saudi government after refusing to abide by the country’s women’s driving ban. “Don’t call our oppression a different culture to justify your silence”, she said.

Sparking Change

My time in Trondheim gave me a lot to think about, and there is still so much for me to process from the whole experience. I’m grateful to have been given the opportunity to take part in Play the Game 2024, and to hear from and connect with so many incredible speakers. While there are too many to list here, you can read more coverage of the conference on the Play the Game website. 

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