Reading takes on a tone of defiance among coup critics in Thailand
Critics of Thai coup sit down in public places and read political books
In junta-ruled Thailand, the simple act of reading in public has become an act of resistance.
On Saturday evening in Bangkok, a week and a half after the army seized power in a coup, about a dozen people gathered in the middle of a busy, elevated walkway connecting several luxurious shopping malls.
As pedestrians trundled past, the protesters sat down, pulled out book titles such as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - a dystopian novel about life in a totalitarian surveillance state - and began to read.
In a country where the army has vowed to crack down on anti-coup protesters demanding elections and a return to civilian rule, in a place where you can be detained for simply holding something that says "Peace Please" in the wrong part of town, the small gathering was an act of defiance - a quiet demonstration against the army's May 22 seizure of power and the repression that has accompanied it.
"People are angry about this coup, but they can't express it," said a human rights activist who asked to be identified only by her nickname, Mook, for fear of being detained.