Page 11 - 022021 PULSE@FASS e-Bulletin

Issue no. 2 | 2021
Special Segment: Celebrating International Women’s Day 2021
Talk on Sexual Women in Leadership;

Harassment Achieving an EQUAL

FUTURE in a COVID-
Dr Lai Suat Yan, Coordinator and Senior Lecturer of the
19 World- A Special
Gender Studies Programme highlighted the important
Presentation
role that bystanders can play in de-escalating an incident
of sexual harassment and at the same time provide
support for the person being sexually harassed.

As the guest speaker for the talk on sexual harassment
organized by Ms Marissa Zawawi, the Project Manager of
‘Fifth Sharing’ under the welfare and community division
of the Center for Foundation Studies in Science, University
Malaya, she also urged those witnessing an ongoing
incident of sexual harassment to take the first step to
intervene as this can have a spinoff effect of more people
joining in. In addition, Dr Lai also spoke on the definition
of sexual harassment, how to report it on campus, what to
say or not to say to someone who is sexually harassed and
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) hosted a
the impact of sexual harassment. The Q and A session was
special presentation, “Women in Leadership: Achieving
lively.
an EQUAL FUTURE in a COVID-19 World”.
One of the concerns raised by a student was how difficult
The theme celebrates the tremendous efforts made by
it is to report sexual violations that take place in the
women and girls around the world in shaping a more
familial context and requested suggestions of actions to
equal future amid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
be taken. In response, Dr Lai acknowledged the difficulty
It is also aligned with the priority which calls for women’s
of doing so and suggested that the victim/survivor speak
right to decision-making in all areas of life, equal pay,
to someone he or she is close to, who could either be a
equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, an end
family member or a relative, a close friend or a teacher at
to all forms of violence against women and girls, and
school. The key is not to remain silent and to reach out to
health-care services that respond to their needs. In
various persons for help including hotlines run by NGOs.
addition to persistent pre-existing social and systemic
The event was held on 19 March, Friday from 8:00 pm –
barriers to women’s participation and leadership, new
9:30 pm with 290 in attendance throughout the live-
barriers have emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic.
streaming on MS Teams.
Across the world women are facing increased domestic
violence, unpaid care duties, unemployment and poverty.
Despite women making up a majority of front-line workers,
there is disproportionate and inadequate representation
of women in national and global COVID-19 policy spaces.
The panelists were Dato’ Dr. Narimah Awin, Technical
Advisor on Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights ,
UNFPA Malaysia; Nisha Sabanayagam, Programme &
Operations Manager, All Women’s Action Society (AWAM)
and Dr. Vilashini Somiah, Senior Lecturer, Gender Studies
Programme.

It also featured a special message by Dato’ Sri Azalina
Othman Said, Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, and
Member of Parliament for Pengerang, and was
broadcasted on the UNFPA Facebook page on 8th of
March.

11 | Pulse @ FASS