Period checks and rape jokes – have they been forgotten?

 

On June 20, education minister Radzi Jidin said his ministry was in the final stages of forming a committee to investigate the allegations of period spot checks which were made two months ago.

Why does the education ministry (MoE) need to form a committee for this investigation? Doesn’t it have an internal mechanism to conduct this inquiry?

Does the MoE hope that by the time the committee is formed, we would have forgotten about the issue and the committee can wash its hands of the matter and be disbanded as interest wanes?

What has happened to the MoE’s investigations into the allegations by 17-year-old Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam, who lodged a police report about the teacher who made jokes about rape and her fellow schoolmate who threatened to rape her for lodging the complaint? All she wanted was to make schools a safe place for everyone.

Most Malaysians, especially Muslim women, are aware that the “period spot check” scandal is another form of control of their behaviour. It is state-sanctioned sexual harassment. It has nothing to do with religion or discipline.

Parents and the Malay community should not tolerate this form of manipulation and institutionalised sexual abuse.

It may be period spot checks today, but what other controls will girls be subject to in the future?

Many allegations of sexual abuse are not acted on with the urgency they deserve. Instead, the victim of sexual abuse is victim-blamed and her behaviour, the way she dresses, talks or conducts herself in public is scrutinised. Then, she is blamed for encouraging people to rape, harass or humiliate her.

How much more mental torture can the Malay woman accept? Perhaps, the time has come for her to be more proactive and more vocal about the abuses against her peers.

Forcing schoolgirls to be groped to see if they are using sanitary pads, or showing evidence of menstruating is demeaning and robs them of their dignity. This is sexual harassment. Parents should not allow their daughters to be treated in this manner.

Radzi may claim that the committee has yet to be formed, but did he even issue a directive to all schools, throughout Malaysia, to stop this practice?

The period spot checks being conducted on schoolgirls, to see if they are really menstruating has nothing to do with religion. In Islam, a menstruating woman is not allowed to perform ritual prayer, nor to fast, but the religion does not force checks on people to see what is stopping them from praying.

It does not force the woman to pray if she does not want to. Neither does the religion encourage others to pry into her affairs.

The ministers may not have been aware of these period checks, but the school heads must. Did they think it was right? If they did, one wonders what sort of other abuses go on under their watch.

How well do the teachers and wardens who took part in the period spot checks understand their religion? Do they not realise they are wrong? The quality of our teachers is appalling, if they cannot differentiate between right and wrong.

Are the period checks part of an unwritten SOP, or is it something concrete written in the manuals produced at the education department?

Malaysians would like to know the depth and extent of the practise of period spot checks in government and MARA schools, as well as in regulated and unregulated tahfiz and religious schools. What other sexual abuses are perpetrated in these places?

Today, many of these girls realise that it was sexual harassment; but if we had had sex education in schools, and proper religious education, these abhorrent practices may not have happened. Girls would be better informed.

When will Radzi update us on the period checks and also on the investigations about Ain Husniza’s allegations of rape jokes by her teacher.

Does Radzi take these allegations seriously, or is he afraid to deal with issues that involve religion?

Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam, 17, lodged a police report about the teacher who made jokes about rape and her fellow schoolmate who threatened to rape her. - FMT

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