LETTER | Not long ago this year, I was outside with a friend and my wife and there was a couple of men smoking openly in an eatery when it was illegal to do so. My friend just went to them bravely and asked them to put out the 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 found the act admirable, but I began to ask why am I not more like her? To be able to call out wrongful acts and injustices when they need 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.

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

This is the same country where our male parliamentarians get to make unpardonable sexist and sexually offensive remarks against their female colleagues with impunity. In July last year, a man by the name of Norazizi Samsudain made an Instagram video perpetuating a dispelled rape myth where he blamed rape survivors for causing the rape through their clothing and behaviour. At the time when the video was made, he was a teacher at the Baling Mara Junior Science College.

Let us not forget that we are also still outraged by the exposé that female students in this country have long been and are still subjected to the utterly disgusting and dehumanising period spot-checks, which are routinely enforced especially in boarding schools. A practice to which the education minister said there was no evidence of initially.

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

For her righteous act in exposing the male teacher’s act, Ain, who is still a minor, has been threatened with rape, called Satan’s spawn, 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. 

Reading about Ain reminded me of my friend 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 was willing to put the security and normalcy of her life on the line in order to speak up for 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 would be angry at the injustice or the issue, I would shun away from conflict, content with my own private thoughts and expressing 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. They inspired me and I, too, can be brave to stand up for what is right and be strong enough to continue standing my ground

The problem, as I argued earlier, is a structural one. We need to have parents, teachers and our educational institutions (from the top) all playing 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 form of rape jokes or gender discrimination in their lives. 

We also have to start shaming leaders who are sexists and sexually offensive and elect only those who will set a brilliant example for our society. This is a huge task but it is not impossible. We just have to be brave and start somewhere, just like how Ain did.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.