“Boys will be boys,” they say. But does male entitlement give men the excuse to rape a woman because she dressed in a certain way?

For the past week, screenshots of Facebook posts showing two Singaporean women dressed in tight-fitting shorts and tops have been circulating online and receiving harsh criticism from online users.

One person named Dol Wangga wrote: “So the next time a guy comes along and molests or rapes a lady dressed as such, don’t blame the rapist.”

“She was just entering things-to-do in her phone today: get raped,” said another netizen, Wan Saini.

‘She should be raped’: Girls in Singapore criticised for dressing

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The Straits Times, The Malaysian Feminist’s Facebook

These and other similar comments have angered some feminist groups and fuelled them to speak up for the women, as well as raise awareness about rape culture, that they believe, exists in Singapore.

One such feminist group is The Local Rebel (TLR). Just five months old, this team of anonymous, intersectional feminists champion gender equality and societal issues like racial discrimination.

“There are many cases of rape where the victim is blamed. It is ridiculous. How can someone’s lack of clothing give you an excuse to be a rapist?” Amalia (not her real name), editor of TLR, told AsiaOne.

According to the group, rape culture is present when rapists choose to blame their actions on the victim and not on themselves.

Annual police statistics released in 2015 showed that the number of outrage of modesty cases was 1,367 in 2014, up by 3.2 per cent from 2013, while the number of statutory rape cases was 66 in 2014, 15 more than the year before.

Another group, The Malaysian Feminist showed their disapproval by saying: “To everyone talking about dressing modestly, appropriately and decently, remember this. The problem is not the way women dress. It’s the rapists. Stop focusing on the clothes. Focus on the rapists.”

“There is no reason for someone to rape a woman just because her appearance is not respectable enough for them,” said Amalia. “This has to stop.”

mldas@sph.com.sg

Chongzheng Primary teacher is one of four honoured with Caring Teacher Award.

Last year, one of Ms Noor Haida Mohd Jakaria’s pupils celebrated his birthday in class by giving out some goodies his parents had prepared for his friends.

While the birthday song was being sung, another boy in the corner of the class whispered to Ms Noor Haida: “It’s my birthday next week.”

Knowing that his family had not celebrated his birthday in years as they had little means to do so, she bought him a chocolate cake the following week. “I remember him distributing the cake proudly to his classmates and even offering a slice to the principal,” said Ms Noor Haida, 52, a Mother Tongue teacher at Chongzheng Primary.

This was just one of her many kind acts. For her dedication, she was given the Caring Teacher Award, one of four handed out this year.

“It is not so much about your words but the little actions that show them you care and give them the confidence to believe in themselves, though some of them are academically weak and come from socially-disadvantaged backgrounds,” she said.

Teachers, principals, parents and students submitted more than 1,100 nominations for teachers from 234 schools.

The other winners of the biennial awards, co-organised by the National Institute of Education and ExxonMobil Asia Pacific, are Madam Janet Poh from Yu Neng Primary, Ms Lee Han from Christ Church Secondary and Ms Santha Selva Raju from Innova Junior College.

Ten other teachers received commendation awards.

“Caring teachers are prepared to go beyond the call of duty. If necessary, sacrificing their own time and energy to be true to the mission to bring out the best in their students,” said Associate Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, Parliamentary Secretary for Education, who presented the awards.

For Ms Noor Haida, such sacrifices took the form of paying multiple visits to the homes of pupils. She recalled a time when she hunted down a pupil who was absent from school for weeks at a stretch.

The family lived in a rental flat and she learnt from a neighbour that the family had been allocated another rental flat. When she finally tracked them down, she discovered that the mother could not send her son to school because of financial and other problems.

She helped the family sort out these problems and three weeks later, the pupil returned to school.

Said Ms Noor Haida: “Building trust goes beyond the classroom walls. When they make mistakes or come up with excuses, delve deeper and try to understand them.”

jantai@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on April 1, 2016.
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