How a woman dresses is not a contributing factor to rape, criminologist Associate Professor Dr P. Sundramoorthy said, as furore rages over a Friday sermon by the Selangor religious authorities that blamed rape on women's dressing.
The Universiti Sains Malaysia academic said it was misleading to make women think that dressing conservatively by covering all parts of the body, except the face and palms, known as "tutup aurat" among Malay Muslims, would make them immune to rape.
"'Tutup aurat' is a religious teaching. The dress code based on a religious requisite is not an issue. The issue is that dressing is not a contributing factor to a person falling victim to a sex crime.
"I frequently review crime statistics and analyse them to understand the trends and patterns. For sexual offences, how an individual dresses, regardless of age, is not a contributing factor for the potential perpetrator," he told The Malaysian Insider in an interview.
Sundramoorthy said how rape victims were clothed – whether fully dressed, half-naked or fully exposed – would not be taken into account by perpetrators of sexual offences.
He also said there were no scientific studies to support a conclusion that a certain dress code could prevent rape.
"Studies have shown that there were even rape cases involving infants in nappies. How do you explain infants, young children and senior citizens (as rape victims)?
"There is no correlation at all between dress code and sexual crimes,” he said when asked to comment on whether rape could be prevented if a woman covered the body or "tutup aurat" as preached in a Friday sermon by the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) recently.
Last Monday, Penang exco Chong Eng criticised Jais over the sermon titled “Aurat: antara kebebasan dan maruah diri” (Aurat: between freedom and dignity) which said women should cover themselves to prevent rape.
In the sermon, Jais said Muslim women should cover their "aurat" to prevent being harassed physically or mentally; to prevent false accusations (fitnah), evil stares (pandangan yang jahat) and bad incidents (perkara yang buruk) like rape, illicit sex, and incest (rogol, zina, sumbang mahram).
Chong got into trouble for saying that the sermon gave "misleading information on rape, smacks of victim-blaming, and shows male bias in religious leadership".
She was hauled up by the police for saying so, after Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar tweeted late Monday night that the DAP assemblyman would be investigated under Section 298 of the Penal for uttering words, with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person.
Several police reports were also lodged against her by Malay and Muslim non-governmental organisations earlier this week. On Wednesday, police took her statement as part of investigations.
Sundramoorthy said rape was not like other crimes like robbery and theft, where perpetrators could be tempted to commit the crime after they see potential victims with their jewellery or luxury items.
"We also see white-collar criminals – people who dress well but commit crime. Robbers, burglars and drug dealers don't dress shabbily.
"We cannot use dress codes to determine whether a crime will be committed or not... year to year, we get rape victims coming from different age groups, shapes, sizes and in various clothing, which includes conservative clothing.”
Nothing to do with dressing
Statistics from the police and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry showed that thousands of rape cases were reported yearly between 2000 and 2013.
The number of rapes reported increased from 1,217 cases in 2000 to 3,626 cases in 2009. There was a drop from 3,595 reported cases in 2010 to 2,767 cases in 2013.
Prominent rape cases in the past have shown that the victims were not dressed scantily.
One high-profile case in 2000 involved 24-year-old engineer Noor Suzaily Mukhtar. She was raped and killed by the driver of the bus she was on. She was wearing a long skirt and a tudung (headscarf), which the rapist used to strangle her.
Nurul Huda Ghani, 10, was kidnapped, gang raped, sodomised and strangled to death in 2004. Her naked body was found in the guardhouse of a Tenaga Nasional Berhad substation in Kampung Pekajang, in Johor Baru.
Nurin Jazlin Jazimin, 8, was kidnapped, sodomised and killed in 2007. She was stuffed in a sports bag and left outside a shoplot in Petaling Jaya.
Research also shows that rape was often committed by perpetrators who knew their victims.
Hundreds of incest cases were reported over the same period, based on data on the Women's Aid Organisation website. The lowest number of cases reported was in 2000 with 213 cases. The highest number was in 2009 with 385 cases.
The number of incest cases was unavailable for 2010, but from 2011 onwards, the number of cases dropped from 342 to 302 (2012) and 249 (2013).
In the handbook "Rapist & Rape – Who & Why", 90 convicted rapists in Malaysia, who were interviewed by researchers in 2007, cited pornography (31.1%), uncontrolled lust (23.3%), psychopathological factors (10%), psychological factors (5.6%), and women to be blamed (2.2%) as the factors that caused them to rape. The remaining 27.8% did not respond when asked what led them to commit the crime.
The researchers also found that the respondents had degrading views of women. More than 60% agreed that women were created to fulfil men's desires, and more than 80% agreed that women needed to be taught and shown the right way. More than 60% also agreed that women were temptresses that that they were responsible for the rapes.
A question of culture
On why some would still argue that women's dressing could lead to rape when studies had proven otherwise, Sundramoorthy said it was because of human behaviour in different cultures.
The debate over whether to teach sex education in schools was one example.
"Some educated people and professionals are opposed to sex education in schools, even though such lessons have proven to reduce the number of sexually transmitted diseases and effective in helping youth make responsible decisions before exploring sex.
"They object because it clashes with their cultural, social, religious and spiritual values. Due to such cultural values, people have this assumption that sexual crimes are linked to how the victims were dressed. The debate on this issue will continue."
But Sundramoorthy said the police could also do more to educate the public on rape to show that dressing was not a factor.
He said police could provide information on the profile of victims and perpetrators, and where and how sexual crimes happened so that the public could learn to protect themselves.
Information based on facts and analyses by experts, he said, could be made available on the police website so the public could access it easily.
"At the end of the day, crime statistics, trends and patterns must be publicised to raise awareness, reduce negative public perception and misconception. We don't see sufficient information on the police website now.
"Such information should not be available just for groups like policymakers. With information made available, we can avoid conflicts and misunderstanding.” – TMI
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