Thai pupils fight for the right to be hirsute

AT A BUSY intersection in Bangkok 15-year-old Benjamaporn Nivas sits in her school uniform with her hands bound behind her and her mouth taped shut. A sign hanging from her neck reads “This pupil violates school rules by wearing her hair long, past her ears and with a fringe. Please punish her.” On Ms Benjamaporn’s lap lies a large pair of scissors to help passers-by fulfil the request by administering a more suitable hair-do.

When Ms Benjamaporn (pictured) appeared in this way in late June, she was not actually being punished by her school, but rather was trying to draw attention to the humiliating hair-related discipline teachers in Thailand often inflict on students. She was, predictably, punished for doing so, by the police, who forced her to abandon her protest within hours. A week later she and other members of a campaign group called “Bad Student” had submitted more than 300 complaints to the ministry of education on behalf of pupils who had been given haircuts by their teachers over the previous four months alone.