LOCAL musician, Nurul Ashiqeen Johari recently shared a disturbing experience on Instagram, detailing how she was allegedly groped by a stranger in Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur, and then allegedly subjected to further harassment when lodging a police report.
“Last night around 10.30pm in Chinatown (Petaling Street), this guy publicly groped me!” she wrote along with a picture of the perpetrator.
“I was shocked and scared to react, if h’s that bold in front of everyone, who know what else he’s capable of?”
“It’s sad that women aren’t safe, even in crowded places!” she shared.
“Unfortunately, sometimes even the police aren’t much help, so it’s up to us to do whatever we can to stay safe,” she wrote in the caption of her post.
Nurul Ashiqeen, better known as Iqeen further shared her frustrating experience at the police station, being bombarded with questions such as, “Why didn’t you do this or that? Why didn’t you stay with the man who groped you and call the police immediately?”
Iqeen tried to explain that she didn’t act immediately out of fear for her safety, but her concerns were dismissed.
“When the police asked if I had posted about it online, I said yes.
“They scolded me for doing so and said they couldn’t help find the culprit because I didn’t have enough details about him. I only posted it online hoping someone would recognise the man.”
Her ordeal didn’t end there.
At a different police station, a sergeant seemed more interested in her social media activity than the fact that she had been assaulted.
He even accused her of seeking attention online.
“I couldn’t believe it. I’m the victim, and they’re making me feel like I’m at fault and that the harasser is the real victim. I asked how women are supposed to protect themselves, and they told me I needed ‘solid proof.’”
After an exhausting hour-long wait, the sergeant’s behaviour took an unsettling turn when he began flirting with her, even asking her out for a drink despite knowing her boyfriend was waiting outside.
“The sergeant said he was glad I made the report because it gave him a chance to meet me. He even mentioned that he would come to my shows. His behaviour was completely unprofessional.”
Iqeen later shared that the sergeant reached out to apologise and told her that it was meant as a “joke”.
However, she emphasised that her post wasn’t about blaming anyone or any specific police station but about raising awareness and advocating for better conduct from law enforcement.
