Thai woman abused by foreign husbands
There are also reports from the United Kingdom of English husbands who have abused Thai women. Last year, a young English man murdered his Thai wife after she destroyed his Star Wars toys and was sent to jail for life. In another case, an elderly man assaulted his young Thai wife when she dropped a dinner plate. In the latter instance, the young Thai woman obtained a divorce and ended up as the sole owner of large house the couple had built in Thailand where they were planning to move prior to the incident.
However the huge growth in Thai women opting to find a foreign husband and the growth of Thai foreigner marriages is testimony to the fact that these relationships are successful. Recent surveys in Switzerland and Sweden as well as research on divorce rates at marriage registration offices in Bangkok show:
A very low divorce rate under 20% and perhaps 15%. This tends to suggest that a marriage between a Thai woman and a foreign husband is at least 50% more likely to be successful than a Thai woman who marries a non foreigner at home in Thailand.
In the research project in Sweden, it was shown that Swedish men married to Thai women tended to live in rural areas and the marriages were by and large happy.