Rape Victims are Victims (2)

In a quick follow-up to my previous post, I found this published yesterday in the Jakarta Post:

"The mother of the 14-year-old girl raped by alleged human traffickers that she met on Facebook wants Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh to apologize for his statements on the case.

The mother of the girl, who has only been identified by her initials SAS, said on Tuesday her daughter had suffered a setback after the minister said she may have consented to sex and then claimed rape.

“My daughter was a victim, not an active participant. The family has agonized over this incident, and then the minister’s comment aggravated [our suffering],” the mother said during a press conference at The National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) in Jakarta.

Nuh told reporters last week that cases of teenage rape were sometimes the fault of the victims. “They do it for fun and then the girl alleges that it’s rape.”"
 

 I'm assuming this is another case of rape (another minor, I think), but the fact that the Education and Culture Minister, who is responsible for the education of children and instilling the moral standards of our culture, can say that she wasn't a victim is messed up. Sure, there have been cases where girls have pretended to be raped to frame men, or to gain attention. There have been cases too where minors have claimed rape after what they regarded as consensual sex. But isn't that why we have a minimum age? Isn't that why sex with a minor is illegal anyway, because they're not mentally ready to give their consent? Isn't is considered rape anyway?

For a high-ranking government official to publicly question a rape victim, especially a teenage one, is just a show of how twisted our society is. Rape isn't the fault of the victim, that's why they're called a victim. People, especially girls, treasure their own body more than material things. Then why is a robbery victim not at fault for the robbery that happened to them while a rape victim is at fault? Why is someone who was stupid enough to get scammed through the internet considered a victim, while rape victims are marginalized? 

How can a grown man considered educated and cultured enough to be a minister publicly announce to the press that a young girl, one whose story he probably doesn't even know in detail, is at fault for getting raped? What kind of reaction does he expect from the public? Did he not think it through that she will be marginalized in her community because he implied that she was a slut? 

Men in Indonesia do not know the feeling of being labeled a sexual deviant because it's acceptable for men to be sexually active. They think of women who are sexually active as sluts. And yet this one man can so easily label a young girl a slut, while knowing subconsciously how her society will see her. 

As an Education and Culture Minister, his words are bound to have some weight. His statements are considered credible. But such a thoughtless man, who doesn't even consider the weights of his words, how can we trust him with the education of our country's children?