The poster
In conjunction with the Sexual Harassment / Abuse
Awareness Talk 2022, UTAR Counseling and Guidance Unit (CGU) collaborated
with the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) to organise a sexual awareness talk
titled Don’t Suffer in Silence. It was held on 30 May 2022 through Microsoft
Teams, with WAO ambassador, Lee Shih En, invited to conduct the talk.
The talk began with Lee introducing herself to the
participants. From there, she explained the general definition of sexual
harassment, stating that it is any type of unwanted sexual conduct, verbal
or non-verbal. She showed an interesting statistic from 2013 to 2017
regarding the types of potential sexual harassment victims, with 21.1% of
victims being male, while 78.9% being female.
Lee delivering her talk
Lee then highlighted the differences between sexual
harassment, sexual assault and rape. “Sexual harassment encompasses all and
it focuses on the victim’s feelings. Sexual assault refers to any unwanted
physical contact, while rape is unconsented sexual intercourse between a man
and a woman,” said Lee. She also briefly mentioned the types of sexual
harassment, which are verbal, visual, psychological, gestural, physical and
cyber.
After that, Lee also touched on the existing
Malaysian laws that deal with sexual harassment, which are the Employment
Act 1995 and the Penal Code, speaking about each law’s coverage and
limitations. She moved on to give a leading case example and explained the
current ongoing efforts to counter sexual harassment in the country, which
is the Anti-sexual harassment Bill 2021.
Finally, Lee informed the participants about the
appropriate steps to take after being sexually harassed, whilst also
enlightening them on the reasons why sexual harassment victims do not report
the crime. Lastly, she talked about the actions needed in order to raise
awareness about sexual harassment.
The enlightening talk ended with short Q&A and group
photo sessions.
Lee (top row, most left) and
participants posing for a group photo
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