#MakeSchoolASaferPlace Trends After M’sian Teen Exposes Rape Culture Among Students & Teachers

By Karissa Lund  •  in News
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(source: Coconut KL)

On Friday (23 April), 17-year-old student, Ain Husniza had alleged that a male teacher had trivialised rape during a physical and health education class at her school in Selangor.

Through a TikTok video, she explained that inappropriate remarks were made while students were discussing sexual harassment during the lesson.

“We were talking about how there are laws protecting minors from sexual abuse and harassment and then he said ‘if you want to rape someone, don’t rape those under 18, rape those above 18’,” she claimed.

The teacher allegedly also said that if boys were raped, they would not report it because “it feels good for them”. The video quickly went viral on Malaysian social media over the weekend.

Watch it here:

After the classroom incident, Ain immediately lodged a complaint to the school’s counsellor. She shared screenshots of their WhatsApp conversation in a Twitter thread, which showed the counsellor apologising for the teacher’s actions.

However, the counsellor said it was “normal” for teenage boys to utter crude remarks in jest and she should not take it to heart.

What’s shocking is that Ain updated netizens through Twitter yesterday (25 April), stating that she has been getting rape threats from her male peers and even got accused of being autistic after the whole exposé.

Her father, Saiful Nizam, 42, told Coconuts KL today that he is worried about his daughter and noted that she will not be attending school for a few days.

“This experience is entirely new to Ain but she remains in high spirits and is determined to raise awareness around issues such as these… I am concerned about my daughter, but hopefully, it will all be OK,” he said.

Saiful mentioned that two police reports regarding the teacher and the threat respectively, were made at the Saujana Utama police station. The threat was captured in an audio recording that said: “I will rape you and then send you to Thailand”.

According to The Star, the Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said today that the incident must be investigated and taken action immediately.

Zuraida who is also the founder and president of the Council of Malaysian Women Political Leaders (Comwel), mentioned that the claim is a grave concern and should not be taken lightly by school authorities, teachers and counsellors.

Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin (source: The Star)

“We are against gender discrimination and sexual harassment in all forms. Women and girls, as well as men and boys who are subjected to it, have a right to voice out and do not have to be silent victims,” she said.

Zuraida also expressed confidence that the Education Ministry would take appropriate action on the matter, adding that teachers should set good examples for students.

“We assert that rape can never be a joking matter. Teachers should also observe boundaries with students and not subject them to unnecessary, embarrassing situations with distasteful jokes,” she urged.

Since then, Ain has garnered online support for coming forward with her video and more than 67,000 tweets have since been posted with her hashtag #MakeSchoolASaferPlace. Actress Sharifah Amani and former education minister Maszlee Malik were among those who showed support, take a look:

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