Muslim women in Thai Deep South step into roles at Pattani fish market

In Thailand’s religiously conservative Deep South, an unlikely group stepped in to fill the roles left vacant by foreign laborers who used to work at the Pattani fish market– the region’s Muslim women. 

Pattani’s fishing industry is the second largest in the country and an economic powerhouse for the region, but was beginning to suffer when foreign labor, an integral part of the sector, returned to their home countries because of the COVID-19 pandemic.   

While the region’s women have traditionally not sought jobs outside – staying home to look after the children and the elderly – it became necessary for them to take on roles in the market when the labor shortage hit. And they stepped up.

Now, about 700 to 800 Muslim women from about 400 households, mostly living in the Mueang district’s Bana subdistrict, work in Pattani province’s fishing industry.

Most of the women work as sorters for about 10 days a month when fishing boats bring in their catch, said Waemeena Yuso, 53, one of the few women who worked in the market before the pandemic.

The work neither pays well nor is reliable, but there is one advantage, Waemeena told BenarNews. 

“[W]e get to take some fish home to eat, so we don’t have to spend money on meat,” she said.

“We save a lot of money.”