Amid the #MeToo era, the worldwide public outcry against sexual assault on women, an elementary-school textbook taught students to wear correct, covered clothes to avoid sexual attacks. The educational material taught girls to be ashamed of their bodies, and shifts the blame from the perpetrator to the survivor of sexual assault.
Titled ‘Saving one’s modesty’, a section of the book features a series of pictures of a fictional girl called Amira, whose parents advise her to protect the modesty of her ‘sexual organs’ by wearing the correct attire.
They also tell her to keep the door of her room closed when changing clothes, to avoid spending time at quiet locations alone and if she fails to prevent sexual assault then she would bring shame to her family, be shunned by her friends and face emotional problems.
The image of this section of the book is now doing rounds on the social media with netizens anguished over the content and calling for quick action.
After a FB post about it went viral, the Malaysian Education Ministry says it is amending an infographic in a Year 3 textbook that it says could be construed as encouraging “victim-blaming” in sexual assault cases. pic.twitter.com/jKw1iQB527
— Sumisha Naidu (@sumishanaidu) January 15, 2019
No, this is not from an Indian school. The Malaysian government is facing the ire of people for an elementary school textbook teaching children that victims of sexual assault have only themselves to blame. Under fire, the government is now altering the schoolbook. The education ministry said that the section of the book containing the inappropriate material would be covered by using stickers.
