After 17-year-old Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam exposed her male teacher for allegedly making lewd jokes in class, she has had to endure all sorts of backlash, including a rape threat from a schoolmate.

One of the most common criticisms she received was that she was being too emotional and that she should have tried to resolve it internally with the school.

But in an interview with Malaysiakini, Ain, who was accompanied by her father, said she wanted to speak out about this issue to stop something like this from happening again.

“A lot have said to me, ‘Ain, aren’t you being emotional, you could have settled this with the school, you are muddying the school’s name’.

“If I just settle with the school, will it change how other schools work? I don’t want this thing to be normalised.

“I want strict punishment and for action to be taken against that teacher (so that) other teachers in our country know this is not acceptable behaviour.

“I need to do this for every student who has gone through something like this,” she said.

Ain also pointed out that education shapes the country and that the students being subjected to this kind of teaching environment are the ones who will run the country in the future.

“When a boy my age is so brave as to say that he would rape me, what do you think will happen when he grows into an adult one day?

“When you have a teacher teaching that kind of thing in a classroom… how many male students do you think are being infected by this kind of toxic mindset...