Joint Statement Released by Dong Zong and Jiao Zong

October 8, 2021

Cyberbullying towards Female Decried—

Speedier Gender Equality Legislation Urged

The video footage Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam posted online was recently montaged with obscene visuals and misused by the splenetic; it happens that Ain Husniza posted a clip on the net revealing the sexual bullying towards her by a male teacher in April at her school. Truth be told, this montage has gone viral for some time now. Dong Jiao Zong strongly decries this female-abuse cyberbullying and calls for barrack support from all sectors as well as urging the government to provide the victim with well-timed protection and assistance by forwarding the ‘Sexual Harassment Prevention Act’ in the parliament for approval sooner. 

This is not the first time Ain Husniza has ever been cyberbullied; honestly, it evidences the lack of gender equality awareness in our society and worse still, the society is indifferent towards the employment of obscene video to attack whistleblower in the education domain. We back the victim and opine she should seek deterrent legal action as this malicious act is intolerable in a civilized society and must be decried blatantly. Generally, females are prone to be sexually intimidated despite courageous disclosures of sexual harassment in school campus, sports domain and office. But we regret to witness perfunctory settlement in general. This desultory approach factually takes no action against the suspect, instead it indirectly allows the perpetrator to demand monetary compensation or pressurize the victim in bid to achieve the gagging effect.

Ever since Ain Husniza had exposed the raping banter of the male teacher on social media, she has become the attack target of many netizens, let alone the menace from her teacher (perpetrator) demanding compensation, together with raping threats from her classmates. Soon after the submission of the investigation report to the chief prosecutor by the police, Ain’s case was adjudicated on June 8 yet no prosecution ensued. On 28 April, the MOE promised to look into the case yet after more than six months no progress has been seen. Obviously, the ‘Sexual Harassment Prevention Act’ has not been proactively introduced in the parliament by the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development. Since no measures are taken to address Ain’s case by the prosecutor, the MOE as well as the said Ministry, nothing can hardly absolve them from all the blame for the ongoings.

Eyeballing the happenings, we strongly urge the government to take a ‘zero tolerance’ position for sexual harassment by putting the ‘Sexual Harassment Prevention Act’ and ‘Gender Equality Act’ in practice; these Acts indeed can uplift women’s rights and welfare from gender suppression institutionally. We believe more women and children can avoid violence and enjoy dignity as well as equal life merely through legislation and stringent enforcement of the law, along with the establishment of anti-sexual harassment mechanism at societal level.