NOVEMBER 19 — In Malaysia, women have been compared to many things.

Sweets, lollipops, dishes that need to be covered by the tudung saji, houses that need to be locked, and recently according to the editor-in-chief of a certain news portal — herself a woman — a wad of cash to be kept in wallets.

And always, this comparison is made as a way to blame women when they become victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and many other gender-based violence, either online or offline.

It happened because they did not cover up, they are not vigilant enough, they always put themselves in dangerous situations, etc.

Recently, a 16-year-old teenage girl was reportedly gang raped by three men at 4am. She was first picked up by two of the suspects before later agreeing to return home with them, where another man was waiting. After her ordeal, she was bashed on her face before she was dumped on the outskirts of town.

Responses on social media mostly blamed the girl — for going out in the wee hours, for agreeing to go home with the men, for not protecting herself.

Few seemed to recognise that the rape would not have happened if the men had not acted on their lust — regardless of the situation that she put herself in.

Many Malaysians are in denial when accused of perpetuating rape culture. For them, rape "is not a culture” since not all men commit rape, it is not as widespread.

The truth is, rape is very common in Malaysia. In 2015, statistics by the Women’s Centre for Change showed that there are 30,000 rape cases reported every year — that makes it on average, a woman is raped every 35 minutes. Many of them are 16 years old and below. And only 16 per cent of the perpetrators were prosecuted.

Discriminating against women who wear headscarves is as bad as attacking those who don’t. — Reuters pic

But that is not the point. "Rape culture”, as defined by the feminist movement for decades, means the normalisation of rape by society — that rape just happens, and rapists are not accountable for it.

A group called 11th Principle: Consent! has come up with a Rape Culture Pyramid to illustrate the many societal behaviours that excuse rape and rapists, and over the years has been a valuable resource to understand the issue.

At the bottom we can find: rape jokes, catcalling, locker room banter, victim blaming, and the common phrase that "boys will be boys.”

In Malaysia, this usually manifests itself as the claim that men are always lustful creatures, and would not be able to control themselves from their base instincts whenever they see sexually attractive women. Therefore, in order to not awaken such lust that would provoke them to rape, women must restrain themselves and cover up.

With a Muslim society, this problematic mindset is justified with the concept of aurat, or intimate parts that should not be seen by others, and subsequently the deployment of headscarves to cover women’s hair, and sometimes faces.

Over the years, headscarves have become the most common identifier for Muslim women. So much so that recently "a woman in headscarf” was added into the emoji list this year after Germany-based Saudi teen Rayouf Alhumedhi, 15, submitted a proposal citing lack of representation.

This week, Mattel unveiled its first Barbie doll with a headscarf, in honour of American Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first from her country to wear a headscarf in the games.

Diverse representation is certainly encouraged, but in certain ways, this obsession with hijab has also turned Muslim women, and in turn Islam, into a caricature of itself. We see this here, where wearing the tudung, instead of being a personal choice, has turned into a symbol for the religion itself.

Muslim and Islamists groups went into a collective meltdown recently when it was reported that some hotels have a policy of not allowing Muslim women to wear headscarves to work at the front desk.

Make no mistake, this is a sexist policy, perhaps conforming to some of Western standard of beauty. But as PKR MP Rafizi Ramli has pointed out, it was a simple case of workplace discrimination — no more, no less.

Instead, some groups inflated the issue into a perceived attack on Islam itself. PAS said the lack of opposition to the policy was a form of Islamophobia. Islamist group Isma called it a mockery of God’s command and blamed secularism. Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria labelled it as an insult to the faith.

Missing in the conversation was how ultimately covering one’s head is a prerogative of the women themselves. And the issue of wearing a hijab remains a hotly debated topic even among Muslim scholars, and demands scrutiny over the patriarchal interpretation of Islam that has been perpetuated for centuries.

This discrimination has instead been morphed into a religious issue for a simple reason: to use it as a stunt to further spread Islamisation and restrict freedom of expression among Muslims.

In the same statement, PAS had urged instead for more Muslim women to cover themselves. PAS Youth then urged the Malay Rulers to act against this so-called attack on Islam, pointing to the liberals, even as the monarchy had called for moderation in the Islamic administration recently.

The Islamist lobby decries such cases of discrimination, but it is unlikely it would support any move to legislate against workplace discrimination. Because it would also mean that nobody should discriminate against others on the grounds of not only religion, but also ethnicity, disability, class, and especially gender identity and sexual orientation.

And above all, it could mean an end to active discrimination by PAS itself where they criminalise women who do not cover themselves in Kelantan. Since 1992, PAS has banned women who do not cover up from working in sales by making it a requirement for a local council license. You just cannot escape this irony.

Muslim women have never had any problems wearing headscarves in public spaces, compared to those who do not. Not only that, the latter also get blamed whenever they become victims of sexual crimes.

With the #MeToo revelations, the world is awakening to the reality that sexual harassment and assault is rife. And that men have much to answer for the violence happening across the globe.

There is no question that prevention is better than cure. We can start by demanding that men be and do better, rather than shifting the blame to women, what they wear, and how they act.

This is the personal opinion of the columnist.