Outrage in Vietnam over $8 fine for sexual assault

Vietnamese citizens were outraged ater a man was fined $8 for forcibly kissing a woman in an elevator, a rare public outburst in a country where sexual assault is scarcely spoken about openly.

The #Metoo movement never took off in Vietnam, a conservative communist country where gender-based violence is widespread but remains a taboo topic.

Citizens took to social media this week ater a man was fined 200,000 dong, or $8.61, for forcibly kissing a woman in an elevator in her Hanoi apartment building.

CCTV footage showed the man chating to the woman before cornering her and suddenly jumping on her before she scrambles out of the elevator as he grabbed her arm.

The footage quickly went viral, stoking public anger.

“The fine... was a mockery and humiliation against the dignity of Vietnamese women,” said Facebook user Duong Dai Trieu Lam on Wednesday.

Office worker Nguyen Trang told reporters: “It’s ridiculous, I can’t accept this... I’m worried for my kids and myself”.

Unlike rape, sexual assault is not a criminal offence in Vietnam, but is considered an administrative violation falling under the category of “indecent speech and behaviour.”

The maximum fine for sexual assault is $13. An online petition calling for an amendment to the law gathered steam Wednesday.

Official data on sexual harassment is not routinely published in Vietnam, though 87 per cent of women and girls experienced sexual harassment in public, according to a 2014 survey of 2,000 women by the NGO Actionaid.

The last comprehensive survey on gender violence in 2010 published by the World Health Organisation and the Vietnamese government said 34 per cent of women reported regular abuse by their spouses.

Many are too scared to report the abuse, said Khuat Thu Hong, director of the Institute for Social Development Studies, who welcomed the public outcry following the elevator atack.