Zero Tolerance To Rape Petition Gains Momentum After Actor S Joke

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After an actor was called out over his comments about rape, an old petition against rape has become the most-signed Malaysian petition on online platform Change.org.
On Oct 19, Mohd Fauzi Mohd Nawawi (above) was chastised online for joking on a talk show about how he enjoyed filming rape scenes.
While the actor later apologised and admitted fault for his remarks, the episode sparked a larger conversation about the prevalence of rape culture in Malaysia.
Olympic diver Pandelela Rinong, gender experts and former minister Rafidah Aziz were some who weighed in on the issue.
Days after the incident, Fauzi’s name, along with #RapeJokeIsNotFunny and 'Sign the Petition', continued to be trending topics on Twitter.
Public attention
In a statement today, Change.org Malaysia campaign lead Adli Zakuan said the 'Zero Tolerance to Rape (Malaysia) - No More Excuses' petition was now its most-signed petition from Malaysia.
Interestingly, this petition was not started in response to Fauzi’s remarks.
It was launched in 2019 by women’s rights NGO All Women’s Action Society (Awam).
“The petition that was started by Awam is a Malaysia petition with the most signatures ever recorded - with more than 600,000 signatures since the petition was launched two years ago - more precisely on Nov 25, 2019 in conjunction with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
“After a long time of being dormant, the petition returned to public attention late last night (Oct 21) with a spike in almost 10,000 signatures within 12 hours,” said Adli.
Public sentiment
It had garnered more than 614,000 signatures as of 11.30am today (Oct 22).
Adli postulated that this sudden gain in momentum was due to public sentiment towards Fauzi’s comments about rape.
“Although the petition has no direct connection to Fauzi’s talk show, this drastic increase in signatures shows that the ‘Zero Tolerance to Rape’ message carried by the petition has resonated with public sentiment - that the issue behind this rape ‘joke’ is far more serious,” he said.
Awam’s petition was aimed at four ministries - Women, Family and Community Development; Health; Home; and the Prime Minister’s Department.
It called on the government to enact better laws to cover marital rape, date rape as well as men and boys if they are raped.
The petition also urged government one-stop crisis centres to be reviewed and reformed to ensure survivors receive equal protection. - Mkini

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