Teen who exposed teacher's 'rape jokes': I'm doing this for every student, not just me

After 17-year-old Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam exposed her male teacher for allegedly making lewd jokes in class, she has had to endure all sorts of backlash, including a rape threat from a schoolmate.

One of the most common criticisms she received was that she was being too emotional and that she should have tried to resolve it internally with the school.

But in an interview with Malaysiakini, Ain, who was accompanied by her father, said she wanted to speak out about this issue to stop something like this from happening again.

“A lot have said to me, ‘Ain, aren’t you being emotional, you could have settled this with the school, you are muddying the school’s name’.

“If I just settle with the school, will it change how other schools work? I don’t want this thing to be normalised.

“I want strict punishment and for action to be taken against that teacher (so that) other teachers in our country know this is not acceptable behaviour.

“I need to do this for every student who has gone through something like this,” she said.

Ain also pointed out that education shapes the country and that the students being subjected to this kind of teaching environment are the ones who will run the country in the future.

“When a boy my age is so brave as to say that he would rape me, what do you think will happen when he grows into an adult one day?

“When you have a teacher teaching that kind of thing in a classroom… how many male students do you think are being infected by this kind of toxic mindset?” she asked.

On Saturday, Ain posted a video on TikTok where she said a male teacher had made jokes about rape during a physical and health education class, prompting widespread outrage on social media.

This included telling the boys in class that if they were to commit rape, they should target those above 18.

A day later, after the video went viral, Ain said she received an audio recording of one of her male schoolmates threatening to rape her, which was originally sent to a separate group chat.

“If I get you, I will shred you or rape you and send you to Thailand,” the schoolmate said, in the recording published on Twitter by Ain.

The recording has been digitally altered to disguise the schoolmate’s voice and protect his identity, said Ain, who added she published the audio so people would be aware of the backlash she was facing.

Her father, Saiful Nizam Ab Wahab, said he has lodged two police reports; one over the male teacher’s inappropriate remarks and another over the rape threat.