Period spot checks: Mara to review complaints on its colleges

 

Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) chairperson Azizah Mohd Dun said the council will review complaints about period spot checks against schoolgirls.

However, the Beaufort MP said she is personally opposed to such a practice in schools.

This follows a Malaysiakini report on “violating” period spot checks against schoolgirls, including at boarding schools and Mara Science Junior Colleges (MRSM).

“We only received the information today and will investigate. We will issue a statement once we have the information.

“But personally, I feel this is unwarranted. It is unreasonable to check if someone is on their period. But since we do not have any information yet (about this happening at MRSM), I cannot elaborate,” she said.

“We will wait for the report,” she said when contacted by Malaysiakini.

Meanwhile, deputy education minister Muslimin Yahaya said he is unable to comment until he has more information on the matter.

“I have not received any information and will issue a statement when I have received a report on it. Thank you,” he told Malaysiakini.

Malaysiakini’s interviews with women and girls who experienced it found such spot checks have been the practice in multiple schools in Malaysia for at least two decades.

They vary from groping a girl’s groin to see if she is wearing a sanitary pad to demanding evidence of bleeding either through showing a soiled sanitary pad or swabbing the vagina with a finger, cotton bud, tissue or piece of paper for proof of bleeding.

This is to ensure the girls were not faking menstruation to skip religious obligations. Muslim women and girls do not perform ritual prayers while menstruating.

However, Penang mufti Wan Salim Wan Mohd Noor said the practice of period spot checks is forbidden in Islam, as it is humiliating and violates the girls’ privacy.

Womens’ rights groups and former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching have also urged the Education Ministry to put an end to such practices.

Association of Islamic Doctors of Malaysia president Dr Ahmad Shukri Ismail also said the practice is excessive.  - Mkini