MAY 14 ― Not long ago this year, I was out with my wife and our friend and there were a couple of men smoking openly in the eatery even when it was illegal to do so.

My friend just went up to them bravely and asked them to put out their cigarettes immediately. The two men seemed offended to have been told to do so by a young woman and were refusing at first.

But she stood her ground. She gave them a powerful glare and they, in the end, reluctantly complied.

This single experience still lives vividly in my mind. Not only was I extremely proud of her and find the act admirable, but I began to ask why am I not more like her?

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To be able to call out wrongful acts and injustices when it needs to be done. She got me to think about courage and standing up for what is right.

Then, came the news about Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam.

A screenshot of teenager Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam’s TikTok video posted on Twitter. — Screenshot from Twitter/ant33ater
A screenshot of teenager Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam’s TikTok video posted on Twitter. — Screenshot from Twitter/ant33ater

On April 23, 2021, through a TikTok video, Ain rightly called out her male teacher for making rape jokes during a class lesson. While the teacher’s action was morally appalling, Ain’s revelation however may not be something shocking after all for the women and girls in our country.

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This is the same country where our male parliamentarians can make unpardonable sexist and sexually offensive remarks against their female colleagues with impunity.

In July last year, a man made an Instagram video perpetuating a dispelled rape myth where he blamed rape survivors for causing the rape on themselves through their clothing and behaviour. At the time when the video was made, he was a teacher at MRSM Baling.

Let us not forget that we are still outraged by the exposé that female students in this country have long been and are still subjected to utterly disgusting and dehumanising period spot-checks, which are routinely enforced especially in boarding schools.

 

A practice which the education minister said there was no evidence of initially.

These examples are but a few of countless others in Malaysia on how women and girls here are maltreated in our society’s oppressive misogynistic culture. A culture perpetuated by a system which has failed to protect them in schools and elsewhere.

For her righteous act in exposing her male teacher’s action, Ain, who is still a minor, has been threatened with rape, called a spawn of Satan, subjected to cyberbullying where she received lewd comments targeting her body and is now in danger of being expelled from her school. 

These are all our society’s reaction against her for refusing to normalise rape jokes anywhere and under any circumstance. When many would not even think that it is a right thing to do in the first place.

Reading about Ain reminded me of my friend and and both of them inspired me to reflect once more about having the courage to do the right thing.

I felt truly embarrassed that a 17-year-old student is willing to put the security and normalcy of her life on the line in order to speak up about something she strongly believes in.

Now, because I too strongly believe in what she is doing, I am penning this letter to show my support for her.

In the past I would not have done this.

Although I may be angry at the injustice or the issue, I would shun conflict, contend with my own private thoughts and express them in private discourses.

Because in that way, nothing will negatively affect me and my life.

But Ain (and my friend) have inspired me to do more than this because I can do more than that. They inspired me that I too can be brave to stand for what is right and be strong enough to stand my ground too.

The problem, like I argued earlier, is a structural one. We need to have parents, teachers and our educational institutions (from the top) all play a role to be gender sensitive.

Then collectively as a system, we need to inculcate gender sensitivity in our children so that they will not tolerate any attempt to normalise any form of rape jokes, rape apologia or gender discrimination in their lives.

We also have to start shaming leaders who are sexists and sexually offensive and elect those who will show a brilliant example for our society instead.

This is a huge task but it is not impossible. We just have to be brave to start somewhere, just like Ain.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.