Cover image via Female ReportA study by the Home Ministry in April 2015, revealed that every 35 minutes, a woman is being raped in Malaysia.
The world is constantly up in arms about the atrocities of sexual crimes, and Malaysian activists are no different.
Image via First Post
Delving into sex crimes, at the 'Gila Sex, Gila Kuasa… Siapa Jadi Mangsa' forum that was held yesterday, Young Women Making Change (YWMC)'s Syar S. Alia, spoke about how sexual offenders conveniently use religion to justify their heinous sexual crimes
"Religion is being used as a political tool and a social tool to exert control to say that what I do is correct… and this goes back to the idea of right and wrong," added Syar
Contrary to popular belief, people are not exactly opposed to the idea of sexual crimes.
Syar talks about how the ugly truth comes down to the fact that there are still people that subscribe to the belief that, anyone that does not comply to the rules of a particular religion, deserves to be sexually violated.
Vee Izhar, from Justice for Sisters, highlighted the plight of transgender people that are constantly being sexually harrassed and viewed as sex objects
Justice for Sisters comprises of a group of people standing up against all forms of injustice and violence against transgender women.
On 16 June, a private birthday party was raided by the Kelantan Islamic Department (JHEAIK), during which they arrested nine innocent transgender women for cross-dressing
With harsh religious laws to comply to, the Syaria court convicted the nine transgender women and slapped them with fines and jail sentences, following the abrupt arrests
News about injustice against the transgender community is becoming so common in Malaysia, it is both sickening and worrying.
They are most often sexually harassed and when they turn to the very authorities that are supposed to protect and keep them save, they are reportedly forced to conduct lewd sexual acts for those officers.
Regardless of the stereotypes thrown at the transgender community, they are still no different from the rest of us and these eight people have proved exactly that:
Children subjected to cruel sexual crimes: Pedophilia, incest and rapes
While we are on the subject of sexual crimes in Malaysia, it is impossible to skirt around the issues of statutory rapes, incest and pedophilia that happen all too common but go unreported mostly
In 2007, a young, 16-year-old secondary school girl, gave birth to a stillborn baby, that was fathered by her 42-year-old stepfather, in Taiping
Another horror story surfaced in 2012, when a 20-year-old girl from Melaka, finally mustered the courage to lodge police report against her father, who sexually abused her when she was 12 years old:
The heartbreaking fact is that, most of these children are abused and violated by the people that they trust the most
Excuses, no matter how petty, are always made by rapists, with the most common one about how the attire of the woman or child they violated provoked them, and all the way to using their respective religious rites to justify rape
Image via New Indian Express
Supporting the rapists, certain members of the society are making statements about sexual crimes that seem like they condone rape
With groups like Young Women Making Change, Justice For Sisters, and Women's Aid Organisation, stepping up to put an end to rape and assisting the victims, more people are finding it in them to stand up against all forms of sexual violence
'Members of All Women's Action Society (AWAM), a Malaysia non-government organisation, hold placards during a peaceful public protest titled 'Citizens Against Rape Walk', demanding better protection for women and girls against sexual violence, on June 7, 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.'
Image via Mohd Samsul Mohd Said/Getty Images
