PETALING JAYA, June 11 — London-based Malaysian surgeon Dr Amalina Che Bakri is being cyberbullied after she criticised eye specialist  Prof Datuk Dr Muhaya Mohamad for telling women to “act dumb” to attract a husband.

The 33-year-old posted screenshots on Twitter yesterday showing her Instagram direct messages (DMs) filled with foul language and malicious texts from strangers.

“Please, can I ask you guys for a favour. Can you please report these Instagram accounts. Thank you,” Dr Amalina wrote.

One of the DMs came from a person who accused Dr Amalina of having an “inflated ego” and attacked her for not wearing a tudung.

Another person told Dr Amalina to “shut up” in a text laden with exclamation marks and claimed that her statements sound like they come from a “kampung (village) girl.”

Many also targeted Dr Amalina’s husband in their remarks, with one Instagram user saying he “pitied” her partner for “having to put up with her pretending to be smart.”

Some of the screenshots Dr Amalina posted on Twitter, which has been edited to conceal the identities of the users.
Some of the screenshots Dr Amalina posted on Twitter, which has been edited to conceal the identities of the users.

Dr Amalina said it was bad luck that she had turned into a punching bag for those who supported Dr Muhaya’s old-school views on gender.

She also retweeted a video of former Universiti Sains Malaysia vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Asma Ismail saying that successful women need supportive and understanding husbands or risk getting their “wings clipped.”

 

 

 

 

The wave of cyberbullying came after Dr Amalina called out Dr Muhaya for saying that women need to be docile and tone down their ambitions if they want to land a husband.

“I’m sorry but my mum didn’t raise me to be ‘bodoh-bodoh sikit’ in front of men so that I can ‘bertemu jodoh.’

“You are sending the wrong message to girls and young women. Women should definitely not lower their intellectual level just so that they can attract a man,” she wrote.

Dr Amalina has a large following on social media where she frequently shares science-based knowledge and snippets of her life in the UK.

She played a critical role in bringing Malaysian infant Ainul Mardhiah Ahmad Safiuddin to London in 2019 for a life-saving operation to remove a 200-gram tumour.