The ladies of the Hash House Harriers in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Because of the fact that originally the Hash House Harriers was a men only organization, there are still some lingering thoughts out there that this is the way the HHH still are. In Chiang Mai we DO in fact have a weekly men-only run, but there is also the Bunny Hash, which is women only. It isn't any sort of patriarchal thing or rooted in sexism, it is just following in the tradition of the original Hash House Harriers chapter from Kuala Lumpur nearly 100 years ago.

Most of our runs are "open runs" where men and women attend and since Thailand is not a crazy country in a social justice sense, nobody has a problem with that. The Bunny Hash is more than welcome to have a weekly event where men are not allowed as often as they please. The men in the HHH have zero say in what they do or how they run their events.

For the most part we include women in any of our events except for the Monday meetups, which are now, always have been, and always will be men only.

Women are welcome in the Hash though, and we have a lot of members here in Chiang Mai. At the few international events that i have been to, roughly 1/3 of all attendees were women, so the idea that women are not allowed is not at all true.

The women have an annual "Cherrybreaker" which is just like the "Ballbreaker" event that is held every year in Chiang Mai. This grueling event is normally a half marathon that takes place in the jungle trails and not only is it necessary to complete the 20+ km, but you have to drink beer at various stopping points in order to proceed with full honors.

The women are a big part of what we do here in Chiang Mai and around the world with other Hash House Harrier chapters. They are Hares (the people who make the trails), hold positions in the leadership, and even get the coveted "beer monster" position if they have a car and are willing to use it.

The women of the Hash has the same enthusiasm that the men do about taking part in events and it is a lot of fun having them around. We accept anyone and even have had 2 ladyboys (transgenders) that were part of our group. There was just one stipulation, they had to choose which sex they were going to be and had to take part accordingly. IE: They couldn't just change genders in order to participate in both the women-only and men-only events. Nobody had a problem with this because Thailand is not a crazy PC place like other places in the world. In America, I would imagine this would bring about lawsuits.

The ladies of the Hash are a critical part of what we do here in Chiang Mai and around the world. So if anyone ever tries to tell you that the Hash House Harriers is a men only sort of operation, they are almost certainly incorrect. There are only a handful of Hash chapters anywhere in the world that disallow women from participation at all and this is in those strange countries that nobody really wants to travel to and women don't really have any rights. That's not our problem though and women will always be welcome at all of our events other than the Monday events that always have been, are now, and always will be men-only.

On On!