What is Sexual Assault?
Sexual assault is an act in which a person intentionally sexually touches another person without a person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which includes child sexual abuse, groping, rape (forced vaginal, anal, or oral penetration or a drug-facilitated sexual assault), or the torture of the person in a sexual manner. - Source: Wikipedia
In easy translation, sexual assault is the act of a person engaging with sexual intention no matter on touching, act on penetration or even verbally without consent from another person. A non-mutual action.
In the law of Malaysia, sexual assault generally, can be charged under section 376 on rape, but rape is on basis of there is proves on the penetration of penis in women vagina. As to this, there is no specific definition or legislation on sexual assault but authority can charge on basis of:
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| source: Women's Aid Organization |
Situation On Sexual Assault
Opinion on sexual assault
I joined a chatroom in the clubhouse where they discussed topics on sexual assault in Malaysia. The panels come with persons who work in the legal field, influencers & doctors. A very engaging, diversity and casual yet fun discussion.
Generally speaking, sexual assault not only happens to women but also to men and children. There is no discrimination in crimes. Statistically, there is a lot of sexual assault towards men but only a few cases are reported. This is a sad reality of toxic masculinity. Where men can be called weak or have no self-defence towards their own hopeless situation. Also, there are many cases of sexual assault in the workplace. For workers, they have specific authority for us under the Employment Act. Again, there is no gender discrimination in sexual assault.
Shariah in regards to the action of rape is under the law of hudud. But somehow on the matters of sexual assault ulama' regards it under ta'zir. Ta'zir is where the offence is mentioned in the Quran or hadith but the punishment making depends on the authorities, as there is no specific punishment mentioned in the Quran or hadith. Thus, need to keep in mind that how each country settles this issue is different from one another. Malaysia is one country that implies a midway among Sudan & Brunei Shariah Law. Thus saying Civil law has to do its job in protecting all citizen regarding sexual assault as this is the law governs by our country.
First before we go into a deep discussion let us have a grasp view of how a victim should act if any of these happens to them.
1- Police report. Remember to use legal terms like in process of divorce for situation where there is force in sexual intercouse by husband.
2- Do medical report. *the very very very crucial & important* steps as this will be your legal report to prove the court. Straight away go to any near hospital to do medical investigation. Never change clothes, wash or remove anything after the situation. Any hair strands or saliva is important.
3- Have a trustable witness even the person who caught you crying due to the traumatized situation.
Society's view
Talking about sexual crimes can still be taboo among some of us. This is a very worrying issue as in today's generation everyone is accessible to just one click on the palm which is gadgets. From the child until the oldies, everyone is open to many accessible dark websites- Porn.
Porn is like drugs that killing humans from within by attacking us psychologically. How porn artist act excessively give a view of unhealthy sex side from the misguided view and purpose of sex. Child under age of 18 also who is easily influenced by the media and has less or not enough capacity to self resist from this media drugs. Rationally, when family regards healthy sex discussion is taboo, children who have open access to anything including underlying sexual graphic advertisement will have blind learning and have no option to think otherwise.
When we talk about sex and children well-being, we always thought about sex education. Don't be surprise if I say there is still a lot of against and backlash when the government wants to issue this matter in the parliament. But the increasing incest among youngsters is a very worrying issue. I think I should say sexual education is not only adult matters but everyone matters. by this, only parents can take effective action to make sure their children are safe from involvement in sexual crimes
Parents are the root of small family. If not the education sector taking effective action on this matter, parents are the ones who should walk the talk first. Everyone can simply say everything starts at home but do we all really work on it. As parents, they need to be cautious about any change in their child's body and emotions. Never takes lightly what the kids trying to say. Educates them with the body right on private parts and teach them right terms of private parts to make sure when they encounter any unwanted situation we know what actually they want to say and feel.
Victim is Victim and Crime is Crime
There should not be any victim-blaming when in the situation everyone knows victims is the one who been hurts and criminals who had act upon the crimes. But on the side not, we all must understands that in legal procedure as long as the court not making any judgement, there will never be a definite position who is the victims and criminals. But we know if any of such situation happens, there must be the one who starts it and the one who been put under triggering situation. Not denying a lot of facts also possible to be sweep under the carpet, but rationally, victim blame will never bring us to any good. As to the most controversial issue- THE CLOTHES.
There is a lot of issues discussed around the internet about clothes that are worn by women, the situation women expose themselves in and many more. But the question is how actually this can be a real matter when a child who mostly been rape, assault wearing only pyjamas and long sleeves become the victims in most stories.
Men and society needs to understand that other than they influenced by drugs when doing this, non-influenced men also can act on sexual crimes. There are 4 stages of crimes:
1- intention
2- preparation
3- attempt
4- commission
Generally, when a person passes the second stage, they can be charged with criminal activity. Speaking of this I believe that everyone can understand how a person who wants to commit crimes has ampoule time to cancel out their intention regardless of how the situation they are in except for one who is under influence, their punishment may be reduced as they excepted from the first and second stage.
Limitation Of Implimentation
Regarding the law, there still a lot of improvement that needs to be done. On the surface, there are still many bills on matters of sexual harassment still is pending. For example there still no specific definition of sexual harassment in the act or statutes yet the limitation of this protection are common in criminal, labour and administrative.
Generally, even there is a specific act like the employment act that stated about the sexual harassment they still up to limitation. When a rapist or sexual assault done by a man under influence like alcohol or drugs, they can be free from a full charge. This sounds not fair in my opinion.
Well known that not only matters of the pending amendment, but also in matters of making law takes a lot of time especially in the administrative part, they take months to finish and publish the amendment on existed law. This is due to the responsibility of the interpretation law to check all the small error like commas to make sure how the law will be read is exactly as how the parliament intended it to be.
Never Settle For Less
The final outcome I get from the talk is there still a lot of room for improvements must be done to settle such kind of problems no matter from the society, government or even the non-profit organization. We have left so far behind on this issue. Other than the issue of law implementation, a societal issue like victim-blaming need more awareness to help them with a better understanding of how actually such a situation happens and a very triggering to the victims. Unnecessary pressure needs to cancel as how they practice "cancel culture". All we need is respect for each other and know our boundaries and limits. Wrongdoers who using "uno switch card" will not help anything but making the situation become far worse. We all are responsible for our own actions.
I really hope our generation can make a change by simply doing small gesture for example keep sharing and pushing on social media platforms. Never stop sharing as by doing so that is how we keep pushing the authority to make quick amendment and actions for a better country peace.
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