'It's the woman's fault': Healer, comedian spark anger with video blaming rape victims

JAKARTA (ANN): A self-proclaimed healer is under fire for claiming in a video that has gone viral on social media that rape victims were to blame for their own sexual assault.

Ironically, the video was posted on Monday, the same day the United Nations kicked off its annual 16-day campaign against gender-based violence, which this year is themed Generation Equality Stands Against Rape to highlights the need to end rape culture around the world.

Standup comedian Popon Kerok uploaded a video on his Twitter account, @poponkerok, showing self-proclaimed healer Ningsih Tinampi claiming that rapists should not be punished

Woi SJW ama Feminist, kalo bu Ning yang ngomong begini, lo pada berani apa lo? pic.twitter.com/9WAYG5DW4O — IG : poponkerok26 (@poponkerok) November 25, 2019

Ningsih has made a name for herself by publishing videos on YouTube of her healing victims of santet (black magic) and performing exorcisms on people allegedly possessed by evil spirits. Her channel has 1.72 million subscribers.

The one-minute clip was part of a longer video showing Ningsih talking to a genderuwo (supernatural creature in Javanese folklore) that had purportedly possessed a female patient.

The genderuwo apparently told Ningsih that she was the spirit of an 18-year-old girl who killed herself after she was raped and got pregnant.

"Those who get raped should not blame their assailants [...] The assailants are aroused by the ones who get raped. It's the woman's fault," Ningsih told the audience.

Ningsih added that when the spirit was still alive, she always wore "revealing clothes" and "teased everybody".

“[In rape cases], it’s not necessarily the rapist who is to blame, no. For me, the one to blame is the one who got raped," she said, speaking a combination of Javanese and Indonesian.

As of 6 pm on Tuesday, the video has been viewed 1.5 million times.

The standup comedian captioned the video: “Hey, SJWs [social justice warriors] and feminists, what will you do if Bu Ning says this [about sexual assault victims]?”

Social media users lambasted Popon for his comment as well as for posting the video.

Twitter user @ferwinzandilolo responded to Popon’s tweet with sarcasm, saying that the comedian was a humanist for preserving Indonesian culture, albeit “the one preserved was the culture of victim-blaming and normalize sexual assault".

Jadi inget materi stand up lo pon, tentang lo adalah seorang budayawan. Ternyata lo konsisten ya dalam melestarikan kebudayaan di Indonesia. Sayang yang dibudayakan adalah budaya menyalahkan korban dan menormalisasi pemerkosaan. — Alex Turner (@ferwinzandilolo) November 26, 2019

Female standup comedian Ligwina Hananto jumped into the fray, calling on fellow comedians to slam Popon’s reason for posting the tweet.

“I can’t laugh at this because this reminds me of a case where a young girl was raped by several men as she was walking home from school. She died after a hoe was inserted into her vagina, ” she wrote on her official Twitter account, @mrshananto.

Former religious affairs minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin also responded to the brouhaha, tweeting on his official account @lukmansaifuddin that victim-blaming was like “a sheep who is blamed for teasing the wolf that ate it".

Hilangkan pandangan misoginis dengan memuliakan perempuan, dan usung kesetaraan-kesalingan dalam relasi lelaki-perempuan. https://t.co/33iXv5Wo8M — Lukman H. Saifuddin (@lukmansaifuddin) November 25, 2019

“[We must] eliminate misogynistic perspectives by appreciating women and promoting equality in looking at male-female relations, ” Lukman added.

Monday also marked the UN-recognized International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which is commemorated every year on Nov. 25.

With the 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which is set to run until Dec. 10, the UN aims to campaign for an end to “rape culture” which includes, among other things, the "trivializing" of rape, victim-blaming and the use of misogynistic language. – The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network