Asia | Cold cuts

Thai pupils fight for the right to be hirsute

Protests against strict dress codes in state schools are growing

Hair-dos and don’ts

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.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Cold cuts”

The absent student: How covid-19 will change college

From the August 8th 2020 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President JD Vance shakes hands with US and Indian flags in the background.

J.D. Vance flies into a giant trade storm in India 

It is being wooed and squeezed by America and China

Illuminated crosses are displayed above a church, before the city skyline of Seoul, South Korea.

Why Christianity is taking an Asian turn

Believers have clout in South Korea, the Philippines, Japan and beyond


Office goers walk past the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai

Indians are losing big on the stockmarket

The middle-class enthusiasm for derivatives is a relatively new phenomenon


Why Narendra Modi has embraced an anti-caste icon

B.R. Ambedkar dedicated his life to challenging Hinduism

The biggest bugs in the new gold rush are Asian

Wall Street is loading up on bullion. So are people in China and India

Where new talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un might go

A crisis is more likely than a genuine breakthrough