No joke, it’s tough to be a woman these days

 

It is hard to be a woman in modern day Malaysia. When women try to report allegations of sexual harassment or rape, they are belittled, their allegations are not taken seriously, few believe them and, in some cases, they are blamed (victim blaming) for the incidents.

Three weeks ago, 17-year-old Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam alleged that her teacher had made a joke about rape, during class. Within a few days, a schoolmate threatened to rape her for sullying the reputation of the school, and as we have recently heard, she was threatened with expulsion for not attending school.

Women, family and community development minister Rina Harun reacted a few days later, but only after she was vilified on social media for not coming to Ain’s defence. She said that rape should not be trivialised and was no joking matter, and promised that stern action would be taken against the teacher, if the allegation was proven to be correct.

Isn’t she merely repeating what is already public knowledge? Is she maintaining pressure on education minister Radzi Jidin and his two deputies to speed up the investigations?

Last week, we finally learnt that the teacher had been transferred to the education department while investigations were ongoing. Shouldn’t he have been suspended?

Both the women’s and education ministries have handled the situation badly. Ain has been issued with a letter threatening expulsion. Anyone who has been threatened with rape will not feel safe in that environment. Did the minister or members of his department try to walk in Ain’s shoes to feel her pain and fears?

The women of Malaysia appear to have been failed at every turn. On social media, some of Ain’s worst critics were women.

What are we teaching our young if they cannot recognise that joking about rape and threatening sexual assault are serious crimes? Boys should be brought up to respect women, not vilify them.

As if victim blaming was not bad enough, Harry Tan, the secretary-general of the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP), was dismissive when asked by Astro Awani about sexual harassment and abuse in schools.

His two interviewers wanted to know if the NUTP would order a probe to find out if sexual harassment and abuse were problemmatical in schools.

Instead of answering the question, Tan went on the defensive and appeared to be sceptical about Ain’s allegations.

He asked: “How is it a widespread problem? Where are the statistics? Where is the data? Who are they talking about? How many schools are involved?

“We have 450,000 teachers in the country, we have 10,000 schools. How many schools are they talking about? Give me the facts.”

No one is blaming all the teachers for sexual harassment, and the rakyat are not tarring all the teachers with the same brush. No one is questioning the dedication and hard work of some teachers, but we would like to know if the NUTP will initiate an investigation following the allegations of sexual harassment and abuse.

Perhaps Tan is not aware that one allegation of sexual harassment or rape is one too many.

His reaction did not do the teachers and students any favours. Instead of taking care of their interests and concerns, he came across as arrogant and insensitive. Who was he trying to please? His political masters?

Ain is not the first student to have been failed by the system. As she has found to her cost, anyone who had made a legitimate complaint, through the proper channels in the past, was hounded, threatened, belittled and, in some cases, forced into a retraction. This is because we have been brought up in a Malaysian culture of fear.

With Tan’s reaction and the silence of the ministers, is it any wonder that few people dare to complain?

While we can understand that politicians want to protect their position, we wonder why people like Tan, who has an important role to play as the secretary-general of the NUTP, has betrayed his members.

Tan apologised after his remarks caused an uproar on social media, but this does not excuse the fact that he abused his authority and was irresponsible.

Perhaps Tan has forgotten that his job is to acquire the data. It is not Ain’s job or the rakyat’s role to find out the prevalence of sexual harassment in schools.

Would Tan have adopted a similar dismissive stance if his own daughter or wife had been sexually harassed? - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.