MAY 29 ― Malaysia approaches mid 2021 with the Covid-19 pandemic looming ever larger. Amidst the steady rollout of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Plan come fresh challenges. Last week alone saw more than 7,000 daily reported cases over four consecutive days, with more than 40 daily fatalities and over half a million infections since the start of the pandemic.
Imposing an even more stringent MCO will aid in combating the rampant community spread of Covid-19. Meanwhile, UNFPA Malaysia wishes to once again highlight recent issues pointing to the urgency of better protecting Malaysia’s women and girls.
Period shaming, rape culture and harmful practices in schools
In late April, the harmful practice of period spot checks in Malaysian schools and education institutions came under the spotlight, with female students and young women sharing their distressing personal experiences on social media.
Women’s NGO’s like All Women’s Action Society (AWAM) and Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), then urged the Education Ministry to implement long-term solutions against sexual harassment in schools.
Furthermore, the “rape joke” incident highlighted by Form 5 student Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam garnered widespread local and global media coverage under the hashtag #MakeSchoolASaferPlace.
This sparked a further cascade of testimonies, primarily by affected female students and young women.
Ain herself was threatened with expulsion from school for speaking out against rape culture in school and didn’t want to attend school because she’s been harassed.
During the stressful period of the ongoing pandemic, it is even more important to ensure students’ mental health is prioritised. This includes recognising that traumatic physical experiences like period shaming and rape culture have both short term and long term impacts on girls’ bodily autonomy and self-esteem.
In fact, a study by AWAM conducted across a 10-day period in April 2021 recorded 275 testimonials related to alleged sexual harassment and bullying incidents in schools, indicating a systemic culture of sexual harassment and victim blaming.
UNFPA Malaysia’s Special Presentation on Period Shaming also concluded that the impact of such harmful practices include female students not wanting to go to school.
Missing school potentially takes on a domino effect, jeopardising future education and career outcomes for girls, while simultaneously impeding Malaysia’s national development goals.
These period spot checks are also a form of sexual harassment yet, many girls thought it was only an unpleasant incident they had to accept and endure as authority figures conducted these spot checks under the pretext of fulfilling religious duties.
As these period spot checks are mainly conducted by female teachers, this further impacts girls judgement on their bodily autonomy in later life.
While the degree of impact varies from person to person and the severity of practices, UNFPA Malaysia wishes to emphasise that even one isolated incident is wrong and constitutes sexual harassment.
Allowing such harmful practices to continue unchecked signals that girls are of lesser value and have no right to bodily autonomy.
Rape culture thus becomes established when female teachers publicly conduct such period spot checks, leading to, as girls have also shared, boys in turn then sexually harassing their female classmates.
The overall scenario points to an urgency on the need to systematically and strategically asserting girls’ rights to bodily autonomy within the education system.
During the same discussion, Datuk Dr. Narimah Awin, UNFPA Malaysia’s Technical Adviser on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, noted that “bodily integrity means no part of your body should be touched or examined by anybody without your consent, thus menstrual monitoring or period shaming is very unacceptable and very much related to the theme of bodily autonomy “.
UNFPA Asia-Pacific’s recent launch of “My Body is My Own”, the 2021 State of World Population flagship report of the United Nations Population Fund is also the first-ever UN report focusing on bodily autonomy.
Bjorn Andersson, UNFPA Asia-Pacific Regional Director, mentioned during the report launch on May 20th, that “Bodily autonomy and integrity ― the power to make our own choices about our own bodies ― are grounded in gender equality and human rights, and are necessary for women's empowerment and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”.
These renewed calls by female students and the evidence-based recommendations of civil society, experts and policy makers must be taken into consideration.
Additionally, raising awareness about period shaming and rape culture in schools also needs to be supported by strong policies and legislation to ensure that these harmful practices can be brought to an end.
UNFPA Malaysia is encouraged that the current momentum will see the Malaysian government reaffirm its continuous support to its commitment on gender equality by tabling necessary bills, including the Sexual Harassment Bill.
Ensuring legal protection for girls’ rights to education and safety through #MakeSchoolASaferPlace is instrumental in achieving Malaysia’s wider aspirations of a gender equal society.
UNFPA Malaysia also notes that with many schools observing closures due to Covid related precautions, it’s an opportune time for the Ministry of Education to kickstart and implement long-term solutions against sexual harassment in schools.
Multiple stakeholder led initiatives with related ministries such as Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) and relevant bodies like parent teacher associations together with women’s NGOs would also be beneficial to this end.
UNFPA Malaysia stands ready to facilitate and provide technical support for strengthening comprehensive sexuality education, particularly in ensuring essential curriculum changes and code of conduct in teachers’ training colleges to be more inclusive of gender awareness and sensitivity; through any inter-agency and civil society collaborations.
All of which can help make Malaysian schools a more conducive and safer environment for not only education, but also furthering gender equality in Malaysia.
MCO 3.0 and the shadow pandemic of domestic violence
As with all countries globally, domestic violence has proven to be the shadow pandemic behind Covid-19.
Renewed lockdown restrictions in Malaysia plainly mean that once again abusers are spending more time at home, increasing vulnerable women’s exposure to violence.
During MCO 1.0 alone, Malaysia recorded an alarming fourfold increase in domestic violence reporting, via KPWKM’s Talian Kasih as well as hotlines of women’s NGOs like WAO, AWAM, Women’s Centre for Change (WCC) Penang, Sabah Women’s Action-Resource Group (SAWO) and Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWSS).
However, core concerns for expediting aid to domestic violence victims raised in March 2020, still hang in the balance.
Barring recognition of women’s NGOs as essential services prevents them from being 100 per cent operational and impactful for vulnerable women in the community during the ongoing MCO3.0.
Additionally, UNFPA Malaysia recommends that all women’s NGO workers should be classified as essential front liners, together with accessing vaccines accordingly.
Foreseeable continuation of lockdown restrictions means Malaysia must strategise to end violence against women and girls, rather than only responding to this violence.
It is indeed possible to actionably address this shadow pandemic through dynamic, multi stakeholder engagement and interventions, armed with the experience and pandemic related insights of the last 14 months.
Vaccine access for underserved, disabled and elderly Malaysians
The National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) community outreach programme to carry out manual registrations for Covid-19 vaccinations is to be commended.
Meanwhile, it’s also been heartening to note parliamentarians like YB Azalina Othman Said of Pengerang mobilising volunteers to aid in registering vulnerable elderly constituents for the second batch of the Astra Zeneca vaccine online.
YB Nurul Izzah in Permatang Pauh, has volunteers conducting door to door vaccination registrations for the elderly and people with disabilities as one of the initiatives under the Vaccine Outreach Programme.
Achieving herd immunity through ensuring underserved communities with limited digital access, especially in rural areas- will prove essential to the success of Malaysia’s National Covid-19 Immunisation Plan.
Conclusion
The Covid-19 pandemic will continue to dominate public health and national development concerns in the near future. In the midst of curbing the pandemic’s worst impacts on Malaysians, it is also important for the Malaysian government to recognise and actionably address and reduce all forms of gender based violence and discrimination against Malaysian women and girls.
Upholding the rights and future of 50 per cent of the population is not only humane but also essential to ensuring Malaysia’s post pandemic recovery and overall success in achieving the 2030 SDGs.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
