Make it easier for men to report abuse

Photo posed by model/The Star

TENAGANITA welcomes the growing willingness of male survivors to come forward and report experiences of sexual harassment in Malaysia. Reports indicating an increase in complaints involving male victims should be understood carefully and responsibly.

The rise in reporting does not necessarily mean that harassment against men is suddenly increasing. What it may reflect is that more survivors are beginning to recognise abuse and feel a little safer about reporting experiences that were previously hidden by shame, fear, stigma, silence, and cultural pressure.

The establishment of complaint mechanisms such as the Tribunal for Anti-Sexual Harassment, alongside wider public conversations on consent and bodily autonomy, may have contributed to this shift.

At the same time, Malaysia must remain politically honest about the structural realities of gender-based violence. Women and girls continue to carry the overwhelming burden of sexual harassment, violence, discrimination, exploitation, and unequal power relations under patriarchal systems.

Recognising male survivors must never be used to undermine or dilute feminist analysis, but rather to deepen our understanding that sexual harassment is fundamentally about power, control, humiliation, coercion, and violation of bodily autonomy.

From Tenaganita’s experience working with migrant workers, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented communities, domestic workers, and survivors of exploitation, many men have also experienced sexual violence and harassment in silence. This is especially true in detention settings, workplaces, recruitment processes, and exploitative labour conditions.

For many male survivors, particularly migrant and refugee men, reporting remains extremely difficult. Survivors often fear ridicule, disbelief, retaliation, arrest, dismissal from work, detention, deportation, or being perceived as “weak” or “less of a man”. Harmful cultural expectations that men must remain strong, silent, and emotionally unaffected continue to create deep shame and prevent survivors from seeking support or justice.

The increase in reporting by men may also suggest that public understanding of consent and bodily autonomy is slowly becoming less gendered. This is an important and positive development. No person, regardless of gender, nationality, migration status, sexuality, or documentation status, should ever be subjected to unwanted sexual conduct, harassment, abuse, or violence.

However, major gaps remain.

Many workplaces still lack clear anti-sexual harassment policies, accessible complaint mechanisms, protection against retaliation, and survivor-centred responses. Reporting systems and public complaint channels, including the Tribunal for Anti-Sexual Harassment, must become more accessible to migrant workers, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented persons, domestic workers, workers in informal sectors, and individuals who do not speak Bahasa Malaysia or English fluently.

Malaysia must strengthen survivor-centred systems that are accessible, inclusive, and safe for all survivors, regardless of gender, migration status, nationality, or documentation status. This includes ensuring accessible and trusted reporting pathways, interpretation and language support for non-native speakers, trauma-informed psychosocial care and counselling, legal aid and labour rights assistance, as well as safe shelter and effective referral systems for those at risk.

At the same time, stronger workplace accountability, prevention measures, and protection against retaliation are urgently needed to create environments where survivors can seek justice and support without fear.

Advocacy efforts moving forward must hold two truths together at the same time: all survivors deserve dignity, protection, and justice, while women and girls remain disproportionately vulnerable due to systemic gender inequality and unequal power structures.

We must continue to speak clearly about consent, dignity, bodily autonomy, and accountability. We must also challenge harmful masculinity and create safer spaces for male survivors to seek support without fear or shame.

A truly survivor-centred system must be inclusive. But it must also remain honest about power, inequality, and the structural realities that continue to shape violence in our societies.

Migration status, gender, poverty, power imbalance, and fear must never determine whose pain is believed and whose suffering is ignored.

GLORENE A. DAS

Executive director

Tenaganita