Encourage sexual harassment victims to speak up — Fatimah
Very o en when victims make a report, they are further victimised instead of ge ing the very much needed support and assistance. How so? Some people, sometimes even those close to the individual would question victim’s credibility, with victim subjected to ridicule and they tend to believe the perpetrator.
Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah
KUCHING: Victims of sexual harassment should be encouraged to speak up to prevent perpetrators from continuing such acts.
Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said that victims are afraid to speak up for fear of being further victimised or blamed for the perpetrator’s actions.
“Very o en when victims make a report, they are further victimised instead of ge ing the very much needed support and assistance. How so? Some people, sometimes even those close to the individual would question victim’s credibility, with victim subjected to ridicule and they tend to believe the perpetrator,” said Fatimah when met at a press conference a er handing out approval le ers for citizenship application at Sultan Iskandar Building here yesterday.
She added that athletes and students being bullied, molested or sexually harassed dare not report or speak up as mentioned by national diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong in a series of tweets Thursday.
She said that to protect children from being victimised, they must be encouraged to speak up, educated on their rights, what to do when in such predicament, and the importance of stopping bullies and perpetrators of sexual crimes.
“We need to create public awareness about the trauma and the long lasting emotional wound victims have to endure so the general public can empathise with victims instead victimising them further besides providing easy access to counselling and psychiatric services to help victims in the recovery process.”
In the tweets, Pandelela revealed that she was once bullied by a former coach a er chiding him for making lewd jokes and kept quiet as she feared him.
“Once, I did confront him to stop as I couldn’t stand it anymore but in return I was bullied. Seven years later he commi ed a rape,” she added.