September 09, 2022, 03:25 PM
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A mother and daughter travelled from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur for a holiday recently, but it did not end as well as expected.
The mother shared with a social media influencer about a case of alleged sexual harassment that the 20-year-old daughter encountered at a spa parlour in the city.
Mummy influencer-entrepreneur Diah Mastura shared the account on her Instagram page, which has around 70,000 followers.
What happened
The mother wrote that the male masseur touched her daughter's breasts and "nearly put his finger into her vagina" but was stopped by her daughter.
The 20-year-old was traumatised by the incident, and the duo made a police report in Malaysia.
"I feel so useless when it happen, when she scared, I'm not there. The feeling really sucks. I feel so shit (sic)," the mother shared with Diah Mastura.
The mother also said that they had male masseurs before but it was the first time they had experienced this.
Police report made in Malaysia
After the police report was made in Malaysia, the man was apparently arrested.
The mother understood that the man was released after a few hours but Malaysian rapper Ariz Ramli, better known as Caprice, wrote to Diah that he understood that the man could still be held at the police station.
Caprice added said that such cases would take time to investigate.
The mother also commented about how the police in Malaysia handled the case insensitively, apparently by making a joke over it and asking the victim to repeat what happened so many times that she felt "so malu (embarrassed)".
The mother wrote that she hoped to ask if anyone else had similar experiences before. By writing to Diah, she hoped to seek help and advice on this matter.
In an update by Diah, she wrote that a few people have responded to her post to provide the victim with support. The victim is also going for therapy to recover from the trauma.
Calling out victim-blaming behaviour
Diah eventually turned off the comment section on that Instagram post as some commenters blamed the victim and the mother instead of providing constructive comments to help them.
She urged for more empathy towards the victim and the mother.
Here's what she wrote:
"I have decided to turn off commenting for this post because some of you were not even helping. Some even started arguing/fighting with one another. Kind of sad that victims are always held accountable in molest and rape cases. Hence, not many are brave enough to come forward to share their stories. Humans have a tendency to victim blame. Rather than blame the victim, try putting yourself in that person’s shoes and perhaps try a little empathy instead. Regardless of his gender, the masseur WAS EXPECTED to be professional. Yes, perhaps the mom’s mistake was to trust the massage spa too much, and hence she didn’t mind if it was a male or female massaging the daughter. Let this be a lesson to all. But it’s not our job to judge her."
Similarly, Caprice also urged people to stop victim-blaming on his Instagram in response to this incident.
Top image adapted from photo via
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