02/09/2010

Teenage rape: Counselling, education vital to fight sex-related social ills

KUALA LUMPUR: Sex education is not the only answer in combating the rising incidence of teenage
rape, say non-governmental organisations.

However, they feel it is the best preventive measure in preventing a host of sex-related issues like
rape, pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancy and baby dumping.

Women in Action Malacca (WIM) president Rachel Samuel said counsellors are the next barrier after
sex education.

"Sex education is important and will teach youths that they don't need sex to be in a healthy
relationship but for those who may find themselves in a situation where they are unsure, an
understanding counsellor can go a long way in changing their minds about doing it," she said.

Samuel, who also conducts counselling for teens on sex-related issues, said there were teens who
had sex because they wanted to rebel or to gain attention.

"Sometimes, they may be pressured to have sex by a partner or their peers and don't know what to
do."

She said that as part of her research on her book Rapist and Rape: Who and Why, which was co-
authored with Dr Rohana Ariffin, she had interviewed men in their 20s who were jailed because they
had had sex with a minor.

"Actually, many of them didn't know there was a law stating that they could get jailed for having sex
with an underage girl even if it was consensual. The aspect of law also has to be included in the sex
education syllabus," she said.

"For girls, sometimes they are too trusting of their partners and are easily coerced into having sex
because they see it as a sign of their self worth.

"As for the men, rape isn't all about sex but about the feeling of control and power over other people
because those are the things they don't have over themselves."

She said that insecurity issues such as these could be overcome if youths had someone they could
confide in with full trust and without getting judged.

"After you've had heart-to-heart sessions with counsellors, it would have made a world of difference
to these teens and how they feel about sex."

Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) executive director Ivy Josiah said that sex education was the main
force in preventing sex-related social ills among teens.

However, she said the public could not expect that with sex education, issues like pre-marital sex and
baby dumping would come to a complete stop.
"But with a holistic approach to sex education, we are presenting young people with the information
and knowledge for them to make better choices when it comes to sex," she said.

"We should stop obsessing about teenagers having sex and being so quick to condemn.

"We should provide them with an open environment where they can express themselves and ask
questions.

"When you also trust teens with important things like sex, you'll be surprised that many are actually
willing to rise to the occasion."

She said that sex education in schools should also cover areas on relationships as the young were
more interested in learning how to manage relationships or how they could tell their parents when
they were in love.

Parent Action Group for Education (Page) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim emphasised that
while it was important to have sex education in schools, the legal implications of having underaged
sex should also be made known to both parents and children.

"If parents don't know about this aspect of the law and the punishment involved, we can't expect
their kids to know. This should be something that must be explained to them so they know that they
can't do it."

Noor Azimah said a roundtable on sex education in schools would be a good idea for the Education
Ministry to gather feedback from all parties.

"A lot of the people who don't agree on sex education are just saying things off the cuff because they
don't know what is involved.

"So the ministry should explain their sex education module and then we can have an in-depth
discussion about it.

"Whatever the opponents have to say, we can take that as a means to further improve what we
have. I can't see how the issues we have with teen sex and pregnancies can get worse if we have sex
education," she said.