Unlikely Alliances: Decolonizing Religion, Feminism, and Human Rights Discourses in the Thai Buddhist Monastic Context

Abstract

This paper will explore Thai Buddhist monastic women’s relationship to feminism and women’s struggles for religious equality.  In particular, it examines how local Thai religious women respond to the language, mission, and ethos of the global movement for women’s full ordination as Buddhist nuns (bhikkhuni) in Theravada Buddhism – aptly termed the “bhikkhuni movement – as it plays out on Thai soil. Diverse interpretations of feminist and human rights ideologies and initiatives, as well as the myriad ways in which Thai religious women engage with or, contrarily, eschew such ideologies and initiatives, will be attended to. By illuminating the role and relevance of the F-word (feminism) and ‘rights’ language to Thai Buddhist women’s lives, this paper seeks to decolonize frames of reference in the study of women, religion, and human rights in the Global South. Likewise, it aims to create a critical-empathetic discursive space where diverse narratives and representations can coexist even while they challenge each other.