Reframe Our Thinking And Words When Talking About Victims of Sexual Assault

 

This woman, 20 years old Maniishapriet Kaur Akhara was found unalived in a student hostel in Cyberjaya, Malaysia.

Fake news began circulating that she was r@ped before being unalived—and social media influencers are speaking against the people alleging her SA.

All is good until they bring the late Maniishapriet’s honor as the reason for not spreading the subterfuge of her r@pe.

The honor equation cuts through race and religion—I see the Muslim Malays say it. And of course, Malaysian Indians.

Honor doesn’t reside in men’s and women’s bodies—it resides in our character. When a r@pist r@pes someone, he/she is the one who loses their honor, not the survivor/victim.

The Malaysian Indians speaking in Tamil are insensitive in using the language describing SA in this case. In unison, they say, “Karpu alippu = karpalippu,”—which literally means “destruction of virginity.”

“Manisha ve karpalikala. Konnutanga, avalo tha.” Seriously? This is how you dignify the poor woman—by literally saying that her “virginity was intact when she died”?

Use the correct words that dignify victims—words that don’t shame them and make it look like they are the ones who lost their honor, dignity, and chastity in the aftermath of such violence—paaliyal vanpunarvu/paliyal atthumeeral.

Yes, have some shame. A Malaysian Golti is correcting Malaysian Tamils.

May Maniisha rests honorably now—her honor is intact whether she was subjected to paaliyal vanpunarvu or not. 

If the fake news brings indignity to her death in one way, the way the fake news is being debunked brings indignity to her in another way—either way, I am indignant about how indelicate my compatriots are about an issue as serious as SA and the linguistic terms they use to describe the ab*se.