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Sexual harassment allegations emerge in state-run Islamic universities
Lecturers in two universities in Jambi and Malang accused of getting away with sexual harassment.
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Illustration of definition of sexual harassment. (Shutterstock/File)
C
itra, not her real name, recalled being sexually harassed by one of her male lecturers, Budi, also not his real name, starting in 2016 when she was still a student at the School of Sharia in the Sultan Thaha Saifuddin Islamic State University in Jambi (UIN Jambi).
At that time, she was a class coordinator and Budi gave lectures in several courses on campus. Consequently, the two exchanged cellphone numbers at the beginning of the semester for academic purposes — or that was what she thought.
However, Citra said Budi started to call her for no reason, usually in the evenings. During those frequent and long calls she said he often called her “darling” and at the end of every phone call Budi always asked Citra to go to a karaoke place with him. She said she always declined politely.
"That was very uncomfortable for me, but what can I do? I am a woman and at that time I was still a student. Those two facts explain everything,” Citra told The Jakarta Post recently.
Budi’s actions continued when Citra was preparing for her thesis in 2018. Budi showed his eagerness to be Citra’s thesis advisor, although the task had been assigned to another lecturer. Citra said Budi became more and more aggressive when approaching her on campus and Citra felt like she could do nothing about it.
“When I refused, he insisted and told me, ‘It’s OK, my car windows are tinted',” she said.
Citra never reported Budi to the school administration, but she said everyone on campus knew about Budi’s behavior. Citra said she was not his only victim.
