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.

“The fact that Budi has sexually harassed female students in the school has become a public secret,” she said.

Back in 2014, hundreds of UIN Jambi students asked the university to fire Budi after he allegedly sexually harassed a female student.

However, the university did not dismiss him at that time. He was only demoted from being a researcher to a lecturer.

“But because he is now working as a lecturer, it gives Budi even bigger opportunity to have direct contact with the students in the school,” said Zubaidah of Beranda Perempuan, an NGO that works for women’s rights.

Budi has denied all of the allegations, saying they were only made to defame him.

“I will sue those students,” he told the Post.

Sexual harassment by lecturers has also allegedly occurred in other schools in UIN Jambi.

Another lecturer at the university, identified only as Soni, often asked his female students to take off their hijab in the classroom. This and other forms of harassment were later reported by the school to the university’s rector, which resulted in Soni, who was at that time in an important position in the school, to be removed from his position and demoted.

UIN Jambi rector Hadri Hasan had not responded to the Post’s texts and calls regarding these sexual harassment accusations by the time this story was written.

Zubaidah said the alleged perpetrators of sexual harassment in UIN Jambi were all male and all of them were lecturers.

In Malang, East Java, women’s right organizations and university students have also condemned sexual harassment allegedly perpetrated by a lecturer at the Maulana Malik Ibrahim Islamic State University (UIN Malang).

The lecturer in the university’s School of Psychology, Anton, not his real name, has allegedly sexually harassed students since 2013. Most of them were in their first year.  

Anton, who is married and known as an important figure in the university, has reportedly been accused of psychologically manipulating his female students and sleeping with them.

“The victims were all freshmen when it [allegedly] happened,” Al Ghazali of the Malang Students Alliance told the Post.

Al Ghazali said all of the survivors are still traumatized by the incidents and until today the university has taken no action against Anton.

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