LOCAL actor Fauzi Nawawi and several talk show hosts have recently incurred the wrath of Malaysians for making light of a rape scene on a television programme that aired on Astro Warna.
In the videoclip from the ‘Rumah No. 107’ talk show, the actor had narrated his experience of performing a rape scene in the movie Anak Halal.
Naming actress Raja Farah Aziz who played the victim in the scene, the actor went on to say that he did the scene by holding back “lust” and fatigue.
This had prompted furious netizens to take to social media with the hashtag #rapeisnotajoke, where the actor and the talk show hosts were criticised for their failure to consider the awkwardness of filming rape scenes and to acknowledge the trauma faced by sexual assault victims.
“Please stop producing Malay movies that contain rape [or] drug scenes. I know it’s to ‘jadikan tauladan’ (make it a lesson) but bro we already have too many movies with the same content,” said user @jsg_17_93.
“Why not you produce movies to spread mental health awareness or Malaysian culture?”
User @syazwanachik suggested that people who make rape jokes should be banned from the country’s film industry.
“Do they seriously think it’s funny to joke about issues like these? They ought to be banned from the industry. This is a taint to the industry, and they don’t have the right to be called an artiste with such an attitude,” said the user.
“Wake me up when #rapejokeisnotfunny is trending again in the next six months because Malaysians won’t learn [their] lesson. We are back to square one in no time [and] another enabler would just appear again,” said a disgusted @sagehafiz.
Meanwhile, the All Women’s Action Society (AWAM) tweeted, “Aren’t you sad to see how normalised rape/sexual harrassment is until it’s considered just ‘a part of life’? What we say, in public or private, shapes and reinforces our beliefs and values.
“So is disrespect of women ‘part of life’ then?” AWAM asked.
“Seven years later, the coach was involved in a rape case”
The episode has also prompted Malaysian diver Pandelela Rinong to recount her experience with a lewd diving coach on Twitter.
In a series of tweets, the diving queen said that she once had a diving coach who enjoys making rape jokes.
“I could only fake laugh because I was afraid of him. When I finally confronted him I was bullied instead. Seven years later, he was involved in a rape case.”
Pandelela went on to explain that what was upsetting was that he had never stopped causing problems in those seven years.
“As athletes we couldn’t do anything because his biggest backup was the team’s head coach.”
Despite all that the team had gone through, Pandelela praised the sports association for having the athletes’ backs.
“We are very lucky that we are being protected safely by our sports association, who cares for us. Happy ending,” Rinong tweeted. – Oct 22, 2021
Pic credit: NST
