Political, religious leaders urged to address disrespect against women

 

Policymakers and religious leaders have been urged to condemn disrespect against women and address it through education and awareness.

This comes after lewd comments were made about female Malaysian  Olympians competing at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics 2020.

In a statement yesterday, the Federation of Reproductive Health Association of Malaysia’s (FRHAM) Youth wing condemned recent sexist and inappropriate remarks made against gymnast Farah Ann Abdul Hadi (above).

It said these comments pointed to a lack of respect for women, especially online, where anonymity is possible.

“This calls for an immediate reconsideration of our education and awareness on issues relating to gender inequality, abuse, exploitation and harassment towards women in Malaysia.

“No women should be subjected to humiliation and oppression like how the online abusers did and (are) still doing to Farah Ann.

“She is waving our Malaysia flag on an international platform. If any, we must rally behind her to give her support and hopefully bring us home the precious Olympic medal we long desired,” the NGO said.

Farah Ann was showered with much praise after qualifying for her first Olympics, the third Malaysian gymnast to do so.

On Sunday, she was placed 68 out of 85 competitors during the individual all-around qualifiers.

Despite not making it into the top 24 to proceed onto the next round, many online commended Farah Ann on her debut at the prestigious international competition and said they were proud of her.

However, some sexualised her Olympics outfit and made inappropriate and lewd remarks about photographs of the 27-year-old athlete.

Back in 2015, when Farah Ann won a gold medal during the Singapore SEA Games, some detractors chose to criticise the Muslim for her outfit.

Then youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin had defended the right of athletes to wear outfits of their choice and suggested guidelines for lascivious men to lower their gaze if they could not contain themselves when watching sports.

FRHAM Youth went on to call for a concerted effort to stamp out such attitudes against women, online or otherwise.

It proposed that such comments be classified as a legal offence.

“We call upon every societal actor, from religious leaders to politicians, to also strongly condemn this intolerable behaviour by our fellow Malaysians online.

“Such inappropriate, explicit and ridiculous comments made (should) be entitled for legal action (against) the perpetrators.

“Authorities and policymakers must address this immediately and with deep concern as this mirrors the image of our society,” FRHAM Youth said.

On Sunday, former national badminton player Lee Chong Wei similarly criticised unkind online comments made against national badminton mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying after their loss in the Olympics group stages. - Mkini