Eliminating Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Sports: Recommendations from Malaysian Perspective

Sharifah Syahirah , Syarifah Fathynah, Bahiyah H, Habibah I., Fadilah

Kolej Universiti Poly-Tech MARA (KUPTM), Cheras, Malaysia
Institut Sukan Negara (ISN), Bukit Jalil, Malaysia
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Malaysia
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Nilai, Malaysia
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35609/gcbssproceeding.2020.11(155)

ABSTRACT


Sexual harassment is identified as a gratifying problem in sport and defined it as "behaviour towards an individual or group that involves sexualized verbal, non-verbal or physical behaviour that is considered by the victim or a bystander to be unwanted or coerced". Despite the effort to combat this problem, the prevalence of sexual harassment in sports has been repetitively reported by the media. One of the shocking news was during the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast Australia whereby a team official from Mauritius has been charged with the sexual assault of a 26 year-old athlete. This article attempts to discuss issues concern on the existence of sexual harassment and abuse among Malaysian sports practitioners. There were many glaring cases of sexual harassment in sports reported in the media. Unfortunately, most of these cases end up without any redress to the victor or punishment against the perpetrator. It is deeply disturbing to realise the vicious cycles of sexual harassment report led to double victimization of the victims particularly by criticizing victims' behaviour, outfit and choice instead of focusing on the perpetrators. Hence, this article aims discuss best practices and recommendations made by various Malaysian stakeholders to prevent and eliminate these cases from repetitively occur.


Keywords: Sexual Harassment, Sports, Best Practices and Recommendations