Women are Silver, Women are Diamonds: Conflicting Images of Women in the Cambodian Print Media

Abstract

This paper examines 116 articles related to sexual and reproductive health translated into English from the Khmer press from April 1997 to February 2004. These excerpts were found in The Mirror, a publication of the non-governmental organisation Open Forum of Cambodia, which collates and reviews all issues of the Khmer press on a weekly basis. Five major themes were identified: the politics of women's health, government regulation and control, the sex industry in Cambodia, rape, and the HIV epidemic. Discourse analysis of these articles in the context of other sources and experience allows a gendered exploration of the reporting of sexual and reproductive health and rights issues in Cambodia by the Khmer print media. The reports explore the contested political empowerment of women in this strongly hierarchical society, and the mechanisms used to regulate and control sexual activity. The expanding sex industry and associated sexual trafficking are reported, together with the corruption of legal structures designed to regulate health systems and protect women and children from sexual exploitation and rape. The growing problem of AIDS and successes in reducing HIV transmission through the collaboration of sex workers in the 100% condom use policy is documented, and the tensions implicit in a cultural representation of women that both protects and constrains women are explored.

Résumé

L'auteur examine 116 articles sur la santé génésique traduits en anglais, parus dans la presse khmère d'avril 1997 à février 2004. Ils proviennent de The Mirror, une publication de I'ONG cambodgienne Open Forum, qui recueille et analyse chaque semaine toutes les questions abordées par la presse khmère. Cing thèmes principaux ont été identifiés : les politiques de santé des femmes , la réglementation et le contrôle de l'État ; l'industrie du sexe au Cambodge ; le viol; et l'épidémie de VIH. L'analyse du discours de ces articles dans le contexte d'autres sources et expériences permet de montrer comment les thèmes de santé génésique sont rapportés par la presse khmère. Les articles abordent l'autonomisation politique contestée des femmes dans cette société fortement hiérarchisée, et les mécanismés utilisés pour réglementer et contrôler l'activité sexuelle. La presse informe de l'expansion de l'industrie du sexe et son corollaire, le trafic sexuel, avec la corruption des structures juridiques destinées à réguler les systèmes de santé et protéger les femmes et les enfants de l'exploitation sexuelle et du viol. Elle aborde le problème croissant du VIH et relate les succès de la réduction de la transmission du virus grâce à la collaboration des professionnelles du sexe à la politique d'utilisation à 100% du préservatif ; elle étudie les tensions implicites dans une représentation culturelle des femmes qui tout à la fois les protège et leur impose des limites.

Resumen

Se examinan aquı́ 116 artı́culos sobre la salud sexual y reproductiva, traducidos al inglés de la prensa Khmer entre abril de 1997 y febrero de 2004. Estos extractos se encontraron en The Mirror, una publicación de la ONG Open Forum, la cual revisa toda la prensa Khmer semanalmente. Se destacaron cinco temas : la polı́tica de salud de la mujer, la regulación y el control del gobierno, la industria del sexo en Camboya, la violación y le epidemia del VIH, El anàlisis del discurso de estos artı́culos en el contexto de otras fuentes y la experiencia permiten una exploración basada en género del reportaje de la prensa Khmer sobre la salud y los derechos sexuales y reproductivos en Camboya. En los informes se exploran el disputado empoderamiento polı́tico de las mujeres en esta sociedad rı́gidamente jeràrquica, y los mecanismos utilizados para regular y controlar la actividad sexual. Se informa de la creciente industria del sexo y la trata sexual asociada, de la corrupción de las estructuras jurı́dicas destinadas a regular los sistemas de salud y a proteger a las mujeres y la infancia de la explotación sexual y la violación.Se documenta el creciente problema del SIDA y los logros en disminuir su transmisión por la colaboracı́ón de las trabajadoras sexuales con el cumplimiento del uso del condón en un 100%, y se exploran las tensiones implicitas en una representación cultural de las mujeres que las protege pero también las limita.

Keywords:

• media
• images of women
• law and policy
• sex workers
• HIV/AIDS
• sexual violence and abuse
• Cambodia

On 21 April 1997, the Cambodian non-governmental organisation (NGO) Open Forum of Cambodia launched a weekly review of the Khmer language press in Cambodia, The Mirror, providing English translations of selected articles reported in Khmer language newspapers. Open Forum of Cambodia was established in 1995 with a strong commitment to civil society and aims to provide “new skills and insights in policy questions” for Cambodians engaged in “decision-making in social, political, cultural and economic spheres of life in Cambodia”.¹ The Mirror, while providing a non-partisan overview of news coverage for Khmer readers, also provides non-Khmer speakers with an insight into Khmer constructions of social and political events in Cambodia. The content of the Khmer press stands in sharp contrast to that of the English language press, the Phnom Penh Post and Cambodia Daily, reporting for a largely expatriate readership.

In each weekly publication, The Mirror reviews 75–100 editions from among the 30–40 local newspapers appearing in Phnom Penh in the preceding week, selecting and translating excerpts of key articles. Apart from Rasmei Kampuchea and Koh Santepheap, which are daily, the majority of Khmer newspapers are four-page issues with irregular publishing schedules, varying with political events, public holidays, conflict or legal challenge.¹

The format of The Mirror consists of an editorial summary of dominant news of the previous week, a contents page listing headlines of the selected stories, followed by translated excerpts of articles dealing with the key political, social and political issues of the week, and a comprehensive listing of all headlines, referencing newspaper name, issue and date of publication. Reporters are not identified with by-lines in the Khmer press, and there is consequently no indication of their sex.

The Mirror's editorial policy is to present a balanced and neutral representation of all political perspectives. While Western convention is to summarise key elements in the first paragraphs, Khmer news articles are often organised in the form of “argumentative essays where a conclusion is substantiated through the accumulation of logic, argument and evidence”.¹ Khmer writing can be ambiguous, either inadvertently or, in a highly politicised environment, intentionally. In addition, the use of Khmer locutions that provide rich connotations for other Khmer speakers, but not for other readers, may prove confusing. Where key Khmer concepts are unlikely to be easily comprehended by a non-Khmer literate audience, The Mirror explores these in some detail in an explanatory box.¹²

Since The Mirror was launched, there has been a growth in Khmer press coverage of issues relating to gender, sexual and reproductive health, reflecting increasing political advocacy for women, greater public awareness of sexual and physical violence against women and the threat to Cambodian society posed by the HIV epidemic. This growing emic commentary on gender and health issues in Cambodian society offers privileged access into Khmer constructions of a society where idealised traditional expectations of women coexist with sexual exploitation and domestic violence; where legislation and regulation are compromised by poverty and corruption; and where opportunities for women's economic independence are shadowed by sexual trafficking and the HIV epidemic. In this paper, the authors seek to place these perspectives into a broader discourse that recognises the biases inherent in such reporting, but builds these insights into a balanced, gendered discourse on sexual and reproductive health issues in Cambodia.

Methods

In this study, a total of 354 issues of The Mirror were examined to identify articles dealing with sexual and reproductive health and rights issues.³ The study identified 116 translated excerpts from the Khmer language press from 21 April 1997 to 7 February 2004. These excerpts were subjected to content analysis, identifying major categories and themes and linkages between articles.⁴⁵ Subsequent discourse analysis⁶⁷ located these themes within the broader political economy of current Khmer society, based on the authors' knowledge of Cambodia and its evolving health system.

The study is subject to selection bias, as selection of the articles that merited inclusion and translation was in the hands of the editorial staff of The Mirror. While The Mirror's policy of including all articles that have a political, social, or economic angle¹ closely corresponds with the research approach of this study, and personal communication with the editor assured us that health and gender issues in general were given high priority, relevant stories may have been overlooked in the weekly selection. Robinson,⁸ in the Phnom Penh Post, reports examples of misinformation by the Khmer press prior to the launching of The Mirror, e.g. linking condom use to breast cancer, reporting HIV transmission through nail clippings and false cures for AIDS. No such examples have been included in The Mirror, which also excludes other articles considered inappropriate, such as horoscopes, soft pornography and stories about social figures.¹

Frequency of selection for translation in The Mirror cannot be assumed to correspond directly to frequency of reporting in the Khmer press, though a review of The Mirror's listing of all headlines confirms editorial claims that the majority of health and gender-related reports were selected. In principle, quantitative estimates of coverage need to be treated with caution as measures of significance.⁵

The analysis identified the following five major thematic clusters based on frequency of reporting, social significance and the prominence of key stakeholders: the politics of women's health, government regulation and control, the sex industry, rape and the HIV epidemic.

Figure 1 Garment factory guard disperses women seeking work, Cambodia, 2004

The Khmer language press

Though the years since the establishment of The Mirror have seen a positive evolution in the local press and in political consciousness in Cambodian society, the Khmer language press retains strong political affiliations and associated bias. The print media is concentrated in the capital, with limited distribution extending to the provinces. Papers are directly and often uncritically linked with key political figures, and have been criticised for not knowing the difference between fact and fiction, or between description and opinion.¹ But despite the factionalism and underlying political tensions, journalists in that media engage an agenda that is at times overlooked by the foreign language press.

The representation of sexual and reproductive health in the Khmer press is heavily political in perspective and priority, urban in emphasis and conservative and patriarchal in orientation. It constructs a discourse centred around power and control. Given the low public profile accorded to women, reporting on the politics of women's health (21 articles) is exceptional, with few articles in the Khmer press until 2003. Since then, the development of a critical mass of local and international NGOs supporting women's rights, and articulate leaders emerging in both civil and political sectors, have led to a substantial increase in reporting of women's issues. Much of this is about the political agenda of the Minister for Women's and Veterans' Affairs, Ms Mu Sochua (also transliterated as Mou Sok Hour) and the prolonged debate around legislation on domestic violence.

The growing political presence of women's groups in the print media has engaged the press increasingly in gender-linked issues, albeit through the prism of the political process, with a resulting focus on government regulation and control (18 articles), covering new legislative or regulatory initiatives related to abortion and prostitution. Some of these stories mount critiques of government failure to act and allude to corruption that undermines government action.

Active international and local NGO advocacy has drawn attention to sex tourism and exploitation, resulting in coverage of the sex industry in the Khmer press, and the complex of social, legal and economic factors that challenge attempts to deal effectively with this problem (19 articles). This has included the identification of rape, particularly group rape, as a social issue of increasing concern (10 articles). The recent investment of NGOs in the press, promoting quality of journalism through training and seminars, is another factor contributing to the broadening of news interests and improvements in content and reporting style. Increasingly, the voices of more marginalised women are being heard: stories of rural poverty and exploitation, trafficking and prostitution, abuse and violence.

While attention to all these issues is relatively recent, rising HIV transmission and the toll of AIDS, combined with reports of success in responding to the epidemic, have been the subject of the greatest number of reports (48 articles).

Background

In 1993, Cambodia had its first democratically elected government for more than 30 years, a tense coalition between the Socialist Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and the Royalist FUNCINPEC (United National Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia). The 1970 coup that ousted the post-independence government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk was followed by five years of destructive civil war. From 1975–79, the Khmer Rouge pursued its aggressively Maoist agenda, emptying the cities, ruthlessly purging the country of Western influence, directly and indirectly causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians. A further decade of international sanctions followed the defeat of the Khmer Rouge by the Vietnamese and the installation of a Vietnamese-backed socialist government.

The Paris Peace Accords of 1991 offered Cambodia its first promise of international recognition and support, with the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) paving the way towards the 1993 national elections. The early 1990s witnessed exponential growth in development assistance and the proliferation of NGOs in Cambodia, with 18 women's organisations established by 2000, and other key NGOs such as the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA), established since then.⁹ UNTAC provided support for the development of constitutional and legal frameworks. The World Health Organization and key bilateral donors supported the implementation of the Ministry of Health's health sector reforms from 1996, coinciding with broader government civil service reforms.¹⁰ The launching of The Mirror in April 1997 responded to the mushrooming Khmer press, a growing aid sector and increasing expatriate interest in Cambodian current affairs. In July 1997, tensions between elements of the Cambodian armed forces loyal to First Prime Minister Prince Ranarridh (FUNCINPEC) and Second Prime Minister Hun Sen (CPP) exploded into open conflict. Despite the resolution of these tensions in the subsequent elections–and political dominance for the CPP - the political disruption resulted in a significant loss of international confidence and associated development assistance.¹¹

Three decades of conflict have had major consequences for women. The sense of relative gender equality in Khmer society that once existed, grounded in equal rights to inherit property, long-standing political franchise and engagement in decision-making and economic activity, appears to have been eroded.¹² This seems largely due to the disruption of Khmer social structure, the loss of its educated middle class, the breakdown of family units and the disproportionate loss of men in warfare. The 1998 population census recorded a persisting “surplus” of single women of reproductive age, with over 25% of households headed by women.

The politics of women's health

This numerical superiority, however, has not translated into a political voice, and female-headed households rank among the most disadvantaged.¹³ In the 1993 elections, although women represented 56% of registered voters, only 5% of candidates were women, and only five women were elected to the 122-member National Assembly, substantially fewer than the 21 in the 1988 Assembly. No women ministers were appointed to the first coalition cabinet either.¹⁴ Women's political representation has subsequently improved, with two women appointed as ministers and 15 elected to the current Assembly. Women remain under-represented in public administration, holding only 13% of all managerial positions and 28% of technical or professional positions.¹⁵

Women's educational disadvantage and traditional deference to male leadership have limited their engagement in political forums, even where women's issues are the focus. In 1995, the Cambodian government proposed that the delegation to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing should be lead by the (then) male Secretary for State for Women's Affairs, because:

“If we send [an] inferior woman, it means we don't give importance to the meeting… They [women] are used to sitting in the back row. If we put them in the front row and ask them to make a speech, take notes and answer questions, I think they would be unable to manage as they have little experience.”¹⁶

The delegation was eventually led by First Lady, Princess Norodom Marie Ranarridh, wife of the then First Prime Minister. The debate over representation at the Beijing conference was a critical stimulus for women's advocacy and active engagement of local NGOs in the debate. The emergence of articulate leadership within those organisations challenged the paternalistic political vision of the time.

Current Minister of Women's and Veterans' Affairs, Her Excellency Mu Sochua, co-founder of the first local women's NGO Khemara, and actively engaged with the NGO movement in the 1995 Beijing delegation, is an example of this new wave of leaders, frequently profiled in the press.^17181920 One of the formative influences for HE Mu Sochua and other women's advocates (including Boua Chanthou, director of Partnership for Development in Kampuchea, Thida Khus, who established Silaka, and Nanda Pok, founder of Women for Prosperity) has been their education in Western democracies, where they have been exposed to the potential of civil society to impact on women's lives.⁹ The women's organisations they have created and others–such as the Women's Crisis Centre, Partners against Domestic Violence, LICADHO and the Cambodian Committee of Women–have been increasingly featured in the press as they represent Cambodian women in national and international forums on gender and poverty, domestic violence and women's rights.¹⁷²¹²² In 2003, some 32 NGOs with an interest in women's rights joined to protest the rejection by Phnom Penh authorities of their application to hold a demonstration on domestic violence.²³

This evolution of a politically active women's movement challenges traditional constructions of the ideal Khmer woman, defined as shy, deferential and obedient, but also strong, competent and vocal.²⁴ The evolution of Cambodian society and increasing opportunities for women reinforce the latter strengths, and attempts to redefine Cambodian women's roles have placed the leadership of these NGOs in conflict with the patriarchal political establishment. The Cambodian political environment has been particularly alienating for women, with persisting anxieties around its inherent violen

“Women were formerly afraid to participate in politics, and they always thought that politics was only for men, because politics is associated with violence.”²²

Despite evidence of increasing gender awareness in government,⁹ there is a tension evident in approaches to women's rights, often crystallised around concrete issues such as education. The Prime Minister Hun Sen, while acknowledging the need to recognise women's rights, is reported to be critical of the public debate on gender issues, recommending that women's rights advocates would be better employed in promoting the establishment of schools in remote areas.²³²⁵²⁶

Despite improvements in universal access to primary schooling, reluctance to allow girls to travel is a key cause of the disparity in education at post-primary level. By secondary school or lycée level, male enrollment rates are double female rates.²⁷ The building of secondary schools in rural areas–often named for their political sponsors–has been a key government agenda that combines educational goals with political promotion. For rural Khmers, there are tensions between the demands of a changing economy, changes in women's roles and economic opportunity, and Khmer culture. For the government, providing secondary schooling in remote areas:

“…is a policy of gender equity, because in Cambodian custom, daughters are not allowed to go far from their homes, because parents are afraid of their girls being raped, and when a girl is raped, her family may be dishonoured.”²⁶

For women's advocacy groups, however, while local education is a necessary and desirable development, it should not be used to avoid addressing the exploitation and abuse of women.

Despite generous guarantees of gender equity and equality within the Cambodian Constitution, which recognises the human rights expressed in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related conventions,¹⁴ implementation of these guarantees through the political and legal system has been problematic. “Gender” has no equivalent translation in Khmer, and despite the establishment of a Ministry that includes Women's Affairs and the introduction of gender analysis through the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, gender mainstreaming has not made an impact on government.²⁸

Domestic violence has been on the political agenda since the release of a USAID-funded study undertaken by the Asia Foundation, and the gravity of the problem led 15 NGOs to unite to launch the Project against Domestic Violence.⁹²⁹ Despite pressure from the NGO community, the National Assembly has not yet adopted the draft Law against Violence against Women and Children, pending since 1996 and redrafted after failing to gain political support.³⁰³¹ Resistance to the legislation is evidence of long-standing anxieties that recognition of women's rights will destabilise gender roles and relationships. The failure of the political parties to form a coalition government until nearly a year after the 2003 elections is compounding this impasse.

“Parliamentarians criticised the law [against violence against women and children] for providing women with too many freedoms and rights, which will cause them to be so happy with their freedom that they do not respect ancient Cambodian customs… ‘A cake cannot be bigger than the cake pan’.”³²

The constraints placed on women by traditional Khmer culture, however, are increasingly being challenged. HE Mu Sochua does not hesitate to link tradition and domestic violence. She challenges conventions that reinforce the notion that to be born female is evidence of negative karma, with its attendant passivity, acceptance of abuse and unquestioning subservience to one's husband.³³ The perceived inevitability of domestic violence is evident in Khmer proverbs such as “Plates in a basket will rattle”, which justify non-intervention.²⁹ With one in six families reported to be affected by domestic violence, the problem is significant, however.³⁴

Government regulation and control

With the Khmer media's strong focus on the political process, it is not surprising that regulatory mechanisms have been debated widely as a means of exerting control over complex sexual issues. In part, this reflects the characteristic Cambodian desire for order and a desperate hope that legislation will re-establish robâb rap roy (the way things are properly arranged) in the wilderness of a highly traumatised, post-conflict society, now exposed to a rapidly modernising world.³⁵ In 1997, alarm was raised at the breakdown of traditional taboos that censured sexual congress between older men and young women and children, a practice that offends traditional understandings of both gender and age. In passionate language, the news reporter sought legislative solutions in the form of a “sexual intercourse law” to render this illegal:

“Cambodian culture, tradition, custom, habits, etiquette, and moral ethics have all been destroyed…Change has come with incomparable speed in the issue of grandfathers who flirt with grandchildren, and of daddies who flirt around with kids…”³⁶

Even where relevant legislation has been introduced, however, there is a substantial gap between policy and implementation. While Cambodia has some of the most liberal abortion legislation in Southeast Asia, not requiring clinical justification for termination prior to 12 weeks,³⁷³⁸ guidelines on the conditions for legal terminations and mechanisms to accredit providers and clinics were not developed by the Ministry of Health until five years after the original legislation, creating a climate of persisting legal uncertainty.³⁹⁴⁰ Termination of pregnancy, though legal, does not feature in Ministry of Health programmes and is not usually advertised among fixed-price procedures in referral hospitals. The Cambodian Women's Clinic is the only NGO providing abortions,⁴⁰ and the high cost of abortions at government and private clinics pushes the poor towards unregistered practitioners, where reports of deaths from illegal abortions are estimated at 20–25% of cases.⁴¹ Data on frequency of abortions remains inadequate; a 1995 study reported 5% of women ever having had an abortion, but this is probably an underestimate.⁴² The lack of reliable data on abortion and the Ministry of Health's failure to regulate the expanding private sector have been criticised in the press, with reports alluding to rent-seeking and higher-level patronage protecting unregistered providers.⁴¹⁴³

The sex industry in Cambodia

Reports on sexual trafficking in Cambodia contrast sexual exploitation with cultural constructions of women's role in society, advocating legal mechanisms to control the problems and expressing concern over the subversion of those mechanisms and perpetuation of the abuse. Though prostitution is known to have had an established role in Cambodian society, as in neighbouring states, the past decade has seen a reported increase in both levels of prostitution and the extent of trafficking⁴⁴⁴⁵ both within Cambodia and from Vietnam, with Khmer girls trafficked into Thailand through Poipet and Koh Kong, and “strong evidence [that] also implicates the involvement of national, provincial and community officials in the trafficking”.⁴⁶ The extent of the problem has prompted the Prime Minister to appeal through the media for an end to sexual trafficking and exploitation, and collaborative strategies linking government agencies, multilateral agencies and NGOs have been established.⁴⁷

While around one quarter of interviewed sex workers have indicated to NGO researchers that they entered prostitution voluntarily for economic reasons,⁴⁸ trafficking and deception appear to account for most cases. Poverty drives a level of complicity with poor rural families, who receive financial incentives to entrust their girls to agents in return for false assurances of work as cooks, maids, waitresses and factory workers.⁴⁹ The direct links to poor education, child labour and poverty are broadly reported,⁵⁰⁵¹ with migration from remote areas to Phnom Penh in order to find employment seen as part of the journey towards sexual exploitation.⁵² An almost inevitable association between sexual exploitation and Western tourism is drawn:

“Girls and boys who sell cakes and other foods on Sihanoukville's beaches are endangered by the influence of foreign visitors' dollars, which cause the girls unintentionally to become secret prostitutes, and the boys to become thieves.”⁵³

The British Ambassador is reported as pointing to poverty as a key reason why children are susceptible in the context of sex tourism,⁵⁴ and corruption in the legal system allows financial compensation to contribute to the impunity of sexual abuse.⁵⁵

“It is very difficult to end this work, because sexual desires and corruption have not ended.”⁴⁴

“Court processes are cheap, and it is easy to deal with cases without much risk.”⁵⁴

Police describe a cycle of protection and corruption in the Tuol Kork and Russey Keo districts of Phnom Penh, notorious for their brothels, with brothel owners bribing higher-level authorities, and lower-level police warning owners of impending raids that “splash the coconut water” briefly, before returning to business as usual.⁴⁴ As a result, the law acts as an incentive to provide the “required monthly sum” for the complex of “police, military police, commune chiefs, and village chiefs… protecting the business”.⁵⁶ More subtle is the suppression of complaints by victims of sexual trafficking who have been released, due to police compromising investigations for their own benefit, intervention by “powerful persons” or victims receiving financial compensation in return for not pressing charges.⁴⁵

Rape

Reporting of rape increased greatly in the Khmer press in 2003.⁴⁶⁵⁷ With Khmer culture valuing conflict avoidance, there is an emphasis on negotiated reconciliation in law, and in informal community conflict resolution processes. Previous legal frameworks have treated rape as a civil rather than a criminal offence, settled by compensation. Drafting clauses for the Penal Code on rape and sexual assault has been problematic, with legal officers attempting to reconcile the 1969 Penal Code with transitional UNTAC provisions and current international collaborative legislation.⁵⁸⁵⁹⁶⁰

More recently, the phenomenon of gang rape (bauk, often transliterated as bowk) has been reported in both the English and Khmer language press,⁶¹⁶² prompted by research on sexual practices among male students and waitresses in Phnom Penh.⁶³⁶⁴ Bauk involves a youth deceiving a young woman, usually a sex worker, into following him to a location where four to ten other young men are waiting for often unprotected sex. The practice incorporates elements of group bonding, economies for students (compared to an individual brothel visit), and a sense of safety in numbers, with colleagues watching to ensure motorbikes are not stolen. The act is rationalised by participants as:

“…not wrong at all, because we pay. These days, those girls know that our friends are waiting at a guesthouse.”⁶³

While this phenomenon does not attract the level of social and psychological analysis in the Khmer press found in the English language press,⁶¹⁶⁵⁶⁶ its links to trauma, HIV and death are clearly reported.⁶²⁶⁷⁶⁸

The increased reporting of rape draws attention to its association with poverty and poor legal protection,⁶⁰ the vulnerability of young girls working in remote rice paddies and forest areas,⁶⁸ and the erosion of traditional cultural values through growing exposure to Western pornography.⁶²⁶⁹ The undervaluing of women in education and employment and the failure to “strictly adhere to traditional and customary sexual relations” are seen to expose women to discrimination and violence.⁷⁰ Specific strategies offered for the prevention of rape include advice and protection from older, more experienced women, and caution not to trust their boyfriends and “sweethearts”, who may take advantage–in fact, not to trust “anyone, because such dangers often come from their relatives and close friends”. Women should avoid dangers such as going into forests, travelling at night or going among men. Women are advised “not to try to test their sexual pleasure” but to develop themselves through study and acquiring new skills.⁶⁸

The HIV epidemic

Coverage of the HIV epidemic by the Khmer press overlaps all the themes discussed here, with associations with the sex industry, sexual violence, child abuse and rape.⁷¹ The first case of HIV was reported in 1991, and early transmission was linked to the presence of UNTAC's troops and commercial sex:

“It is true that UNTAC brought HIV/AIDS to Cambodia. But UNTAC also brought millions of dollars and changed many fields in a regime that needed the UN peacekeeping forces to intervene.”⁷²

By 1998, there were some 150,000 HIV cases, (90% via heterosexual intercourse) with surveys showing rates up to 40% in prostitutes in high prevalence areas.⁷³ Minister for Health Hon Sun Huot blames:

“…movement of people within the country and across the border, gaps between the rights of men and women, poverty, transition from planned to free market economy, decades of insecurity in the country, low standards of living, poor education of moral conduct, contamination of national tradition by an in-flow of foreign cultures.”⁷²

HIV prevalence appears to have peaked in 1999 at 3.3%, and by 2003 had fallen to 2.6%, but still remains the highest prevalence in Southeast Asia.⁷³⁷⁴ The decline in the estimated number of new infections from 100 to 20 per day is attributed to the success of the 100% Condom Use Programme.⁷⁵⁷⁶ Reports that “Cambodia leads in condom use in region”⁷⁷ and “95% of prostitutes in Sihanoukville ask partners to use condoms”⁷⁸ reposition prostitutes as cooperative participants in a successful alliance with health authorities. The local manufacture of antiretrovirals for the treatment of AIDS⁷⁹ has contributed to a new representation of clinical control by local authorities, partially eclipsing reports of earlier strategies, such as closure of brothels. The focus is now increasingly on wives infected through their husbands,⁸⁰ HIV-positive children “who are not aware of their illness and who did not commit the deed that society fears”,⁸¹ informal prostitution by beer girls and masseuses,⁷⁸ and anxiety over inexperienced factory workers migrating to the city.⁸²

Conclusions

The repositioning of Cambodian sex workers as responsible agents of health promotion is part of a broader, though contested, redefinition of the position of women in Khmer society. HE Mu Sochua, referring to the national women's programme Neary Ratanak (Women are Precious Jewels) compares women to “a diamond, which we all, particularly men, must elevate and respect, avoiding acts that degrade Khmer women.”⁸³ The metaphor is deliberately chosen to challenge traditional representations of women in Khmer proverbs: “Men are gold; women are silver” and “Men are gold; women are cloth” that denote the vulnerability and inferiority of women, readily tarnished or sullied.

“[Gold] if it is dropped in the mud, it can be washed completely clean, and is still gold. But women are like white cotton cloth: once it is soiled in the mud, it can be washed but never made clean again.”²⁴

Analysis of Khmer press reports reveals paradox, incongruity and contradiction around the position of women in Cambodian society. The procrastination over the adoption of the Law against Domestic Violence reflects a deeply entrenched and politicised misogyny. Initiatives to extend girls' education have been consistently upheld politically, but in practice inequity persists, rooted in a complex of social and economic factors.⁸⁴ The popularity of the Chbap Srey, the traditional didactic code that prescribes the ideals of Khmer womanhood, persists,²⁴ and the discourse around rape treats the evolution of modern sexual relationships with distrust, and female sexual pleasure as dangerous.⁶⁸ Yet there is an increasingly active women's rights movement and mushrooming NGO presence.

Regulation of the female body echoes broader strategies of control of sexuality (and narratives of their subversion) by the state. With looser sexual mores frequently attributed to foreign influences–UNTAC forces, mobile cross-border populations, sexual tourism and spreading pornography–the preservation of Khmer culture is commonly advocated as a strategy for eliminating these threats. But change is inevitable. While the forest has long been a locus of danger in Khmer imagining, the city, with its links to Western culture and economic and sexual opportunity, is now configured as a new locus of danger.

Legal strategies–the closing down of brothels, the licensing of abortion clinics, the prosecution of rapists and paedophiles, the arrest of sexual traffickers–are readily subverted, not only through corruption of the judicial process but through the exploitation of Khmer tradition. Vested interests are eager both to have a legal framework and the opportunity to subvert it.

It is the normalising of violence against women, the violence implicit in the political process, the prescribed subordination of women to their husbands and their mute acceptance of physical abuse, and the rationalising of group rape that help to perpetuate this control. As a Mirror editorial suggests, there comes a time when traditions need to be critically re-evaluated, rejecting those that enable the continued cycle of discrimination and violence against women.⁵⁷