A rights group has launched an online petition demanding that an alleged sexual predator, who is currently pursuing postgraduate studies in Australia, be stripped of his scholarship.
Recently, the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Yogyakarta) reported that 30 women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by a man identified by his initials IM, who graduated from the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) with a degree in architecture in 2015 and is currently pursuing his master’s degree at the University of Melbourne.
UII officials have won praise for its perceived zero tolerance for sexual abuse (unlike some universities in the past), having pledged to strip IM, a high-achieving student, of all honors he obtained at the university.
A group calling themselves the Women Care Community has launched a petition on Change.org demanding that Australia Awards Indonesia, which operates under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), revoke their scholarship for IM.
The petition calls for Australia Awards to uphold its zero tolerance for sexual abuse policy in this case, pointing out that UII did not hesitate to strip IM’s honors due to overwhelming number of testimonies against him.
The petition, which was launched yesterday, has collected nearly 4,000 signatures at the time of this article’s publication.
According to reports, IM was a popular figure on campus at UII even after his graduation, having become a motivational speaker and earned the moniker ustadz (Islamic teacher) from his peers. LBH Yogyakarta said that, based on the testimony of his alleged victims, he exhibited predatory behavior between 2016 and 2020, varying from online sexual misconduct to attempted rape. His victims were reportedly female junior students, many of whom looked up to him.
In a deleted social media post, IM, who is currently in Australia, said he regrets that the allegations against him were widely published in Indonesia without him being given the chance to tell his side of the story.
