21 APRIL 2021
The All Women’s Action Society (AWAM), Sisters In Islam (SIS) and Pertubuhan Pembangunan Kendiri Wanita dan Gadis (WOMEN:girls) were recently alerted to information regarding bullying and sexual harassment of students at the hands of teachers and other figures of authority at Malaysian schools and demand that the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) thoroughly and effectively address this issue. Other infractions include the violation of personal autonomy, bodily integrity and body shaming via the excuse of disciplinary punishments but borders on harassment and abuse of power.
Period spot checks; physically invasive spot checks for “forbidden items”; body, clothing and intimate relationship shaming in public; child grooming; molestations; slapping and pinching of nipples as punishment are just a few of the violating incidences experienced by students in Malaysian schools that have been brought to the public’s attention recently.
These incidents that are reported as happening in our educational institutions – kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, boarding schools including Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM), universities – reflect a systemic toxic culture of patriarchy, sexism, harassment, abuse, bullying and religious policing, with our nation’s young people on the receiving end. This denotes a chilling prediction for our future adult citizens. Instead of being safe spaces of learning where students can fulfil their greatest potential, our local schools are now sites where (i) young women are learning to fear, be insecure about and shameful of their clothes and their bodies; (ii) adult women not only enduring years of severe mental stress and trauma since their student days but also having this trauma negatively affecting their current relationships, university and career performance; and (iii) young student leaders learning by example about the acceptability of abuse of power and privilege, and are at risk themselves of normalising such behaviour in their own lives.
Incidents that have been reported include religious teachers (ustazahs and ustaz) instructing girls and young women to dab tissue or cotton buds on their private parts to show proof of blood or pull down their underwear to show them their sanitary napkins as proof that the girls are on their period, as these ustazah deem that periods are used as an excuse to skip prayers. Teachers have also been known to grope bottoms and underwear to conduct the “period spot check”.
Twitter users have also reported teachers groping girls all over their bodies to see if they have hidden phones and jewellery, sometimes even asking the girls to unclasp their brassieres. Such incidents can be deemed as sexual molestation. Some of the women also complain of their breasts being groped by teachers as part of investigations into their complaints of being harassed by their peers for “wearing training bras”. Students have been slapped for having long nails or refusing to be a subject of demonstration on proper tudung-wearing, and even caned for not wearing shorts under baju kurungs.
These are degrading and abusive treatments that violate the physical body and personal boundaries all without consent, made even worse by the fact that most survivors here are or were underaged when these incidents happened. Under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 and outrage of modesty under Section 354 of the Penal Code, these cases would be considered criminal offences and are punishable by law. By carrying out such actions or allowing such actions to be carried out by teachers/wardens/matrons, our Malaysian school authorities are teaching all students that it is okay to violate another person’s body without their consent and treat them without respect or dignity.
On a larger scale, if this pattern of abuse and these worrying trends of incidences are not properly investigated, our schools will end up being institutions that indoctrinate generation after generation of students with bullying and abusive behaviour and where the survivors are concerned, a lifetime of trauma. These schools will also continue to instill patriarchal values that will lead our future generations to believe that women are more inferior than men and are meant to be sexualised and/or objectified, thereby ensuring that
Malaysia will never be able to achieve gender equality, not to mention producing an entire generation of dysfunctional adults.
Incidents of sexual harassment and child grooming that have been reported via Twitter include the following:
– A male teacher sending messages to school girls such as “You miss me or not?” or “You love me or not?” and taking them out one-on-one to Starbucks
– Male students molesting and sexually assaulting their female peers
– Male students staring at the bodies of female classmates who are sleeping in the classroom
– Teachers and students ganging up on body shaming girls on their body figures, including their breasts
With school authorities standing by and doing nothing, or telling the survivors that they should cover up more, they are sanctioning sexual harassment, as existing perpetrators continue to sexually harass others without any impediment and new younger perpetrators model after them in their behaviours.
In some schools, teachers are exercising power and intimidation with impunity, by (i) taking female students into locked rooms to force confessions of relationships with boys; and (ii) publicly shaming students who are in romantic relationships through circulation of their love letters on school notice boards. In some cases, teachers are even involving students in the punitive moral policing of their peers, by (i) allowing male prefects to make public speeches that objectify girls throught statements such as if girls do not wear ‘handsocks’, their skin can be seen through their school uniform, including their skin colour; and (ii) asking boys to monitor which female peers are wearing the tightest clothing and to report back to them.
Boys are also among the victims of abuse, harassment and bullying. Teachers: (i) kicked, choked and hit them in the head in primary school when they did not answer questions; (ii) pinched their nipples or squeezed their testes as disciplinary punishment; (iii) openly called them ‘pondan’ and caned them that incited further peer bullying and victimisation.
This alarming culture of abuse of power is not new in Malaysia, but when they are happening in our school system, all of us – the government, authorities, parents and society – need to sit up, take notice, and take action.
Child welfare has consistently been among our most important national priorities. We have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child since 1995, with full commitment to Article 19 whereby we shall “take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse”. In 2017, Malaysia passed the landmark Sexual Offences Against Children Act in less than a week, which was crucial in criminalising child grooming and pornography. In the wake of the recent Adik Amir case, the government has taken steps to improve our child protection services by recruiting more officers in the Welfare Department. Similarly, the government has a duty to protect the rights of the children in these schools.
AWAM, SIS and WOMEN:girls call upon MOE and MARA to set up an investigative task force, starting with our state boarding schools to collect empirical evidence and factual insights into this systemic issue from the students themselves. In that process, survivors should be given full assurance of safety and privacy, with their identities kept confidential. The results of the task force should then be shared with the relevant authorities, including child rights and women’s rights NGOs, which can then be used as a basis for collaborations to form robust policies, including restorative remedies, that will be properly and vigorously enforced in these schools to promote zero tolerance towards harassment, abuse and sexual violations. Parents are also crucial stakeholders in this issue, and we also call on them to not only hold these schools accountable for the enforcement of these zero-tolerance school policies, but also inculcate awareness of fundamental values of respect for all persons and gender equality in their children.
The future of our children, and ultimately our country, depends on the realisation of these actions. We must act now.
Issued by:
1. All Women’s Action Society (AWAM)
2. Pertubuhan Pembangunan Kendiri Wanita dan Gadis (WOMEN:girls)
3. Sisters In Islam (SIS)