Victim-blaming has transcended the realm of the living in Indonesia.
Recently, a video has gone viral online showing a self-proclaimed supernatural healer telling a spirit, which supposedly resides in a woman’s body, that she should be to blame for the gang rape that led to her death. The healer, Ningsih Tinampi AKA Bu Ning, has quite a huge social media presence with over 1.7 million subscribers on Youtube.
In the video above, titled Bahaya Benci dan Iri Hati “Dukun Santet Ngawur” (The Danger of Hate and Envy of a Driveling Shaman), Bu Ning was attending to her patient, who was allegedly possessed by a spirit of a woman who died of suicide after she was raped by several men.
Instead of consoling the spirit for the horrific tragedy she suffered in life, Bu Ning chose a different approach.
“A person who gets raped is not allowed to blame the rapist. Ladies and gentlemen, those of you who have daughters, don’t blame rapists, because rapists get their lust from the person they rape. Everything is the fault of the woman, because she wears revealing clothes and is flirty in front of people, so those lead to rape,” Bu Ning said.
“So, it doesn’t mean the rape was the rapist’s fault. No. For me, blame the person who got raped because she flaunted it, yes or no?” Ningsih asked everyone in the room.
The video quickly triggered outrage on social media.
Bu Ning is, as @monaeltahawy calls it, a foot soldier of patriarchy. https://t.co/iwXnDSPDwZ
— DrHS (@BuruhSiluman) November 25, 2019
eat shit bu ning or whoever still thinks sexual assaults happens because of the victim instead of the abuser. fuck y’all for saying “its the clothes” “its because she was being flirty” fuck y’all. https://t.co/EUH9reONDc
— jade | very ia (@withinandromeda) November 26, 2019
https://twitter.com/dodettt/status/1199010983622000640
Even former Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin gave his take on Ningsih.
Beredar pandangan, pemerkosaan terjadi akibat salahnya perempuan korban yg telah mengundang nafsu lelaki pemerkosa.
Ini seperti domba yg tak tahu apa-apa yg disalahkan saat dimangsa srigala, karena telah menggoda pemangsanya..
— Lukman H. Saifuddin (@lukmansaifuddin) November 25, 2019
“There’s a view that’s been circulating, that rape happens because it’s the fault of the female victim who invited the lust of the male rapist. This is like a sheep that knows nothing but later gets blamed for being eaten by a wolf, because it tempted the predator.”
Adriana Venny, a commissioner at the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), said Ningsih’s victim-blaming signifies a setback to eradicating violence against women in Indonesia.
“In Indonesia, the cause of rape is not revealing clothes, there have been babies and grandmothers who got raped,” Adriana told Detik today.
“The damage could last a lifetime and impact the victim’s family. Imagine if we, as mothers, have a daughter who got raped but the rapist can freely roam without being punished. Surely the mother will also suffer.”
Adriana added that she hopes the government will soon pass the much-delayed Eradication of Sexual Violence bill (RUU-PKS), which aims to give better legal protections to victims of sexual violence and enforce greater punishments on perpetrators.
