Malaysian actor Hafreez Adam opens up about being male victim of sexual harassment at work
© Provided by Malay Mail Hafreez said he was repeatedly groped by a colleague who ignored his requests to stop. — Picture via Twitter/HafreezAdam
PETALING JAYA, Jan 27 — Malaysian actor and model Hafreez Adam has opened up about being sexually harassed by a colleague during a past work event.
The 30-year-old took to Instagram recently to start a dialogue about sexual harassment with his followers.
He asked his audience to comment on a scenario where a man “jokes around and slaps a woman’s behind” and compare it to a situation where a woman does the same to a man.
Hafreez pointed out that while many labelled the first act as “sexual harassment”, the term did not come up as much when the perpetrator was a woman.
The former Hero Remaja finalist said that sexual harassment can happen to anyone regardless of gender and talked about his experience of being groped by a colleague during a shoot.
“This person liked to grab my a** and chest. At first, I was shocked.
“I know this person just meant to joke around but the problem was (that) it’s my body.
“I’m not comfortable with people grabbing and slapping me here and there,” wrote Hafreez.
The Tolong Aku Doktor Cinta star said the person continued to make physical contact even after being told to stop.
Hafreez added that the person would merely brush off his concerns and laugh at him.
“It was at that time that I realised how much of a double standard people can have towards this issue.
“Don’t normalise these kinds of things.
“It’s okay if both parties are fine with it and don’t care, but if one party doesn’t like it, that is sexual harassment,” he said.
The reaction to his post was mostly positive and social media users praised Hafreez for speaking up about the issue.
They also agreed that more awareness is needed about male victims of sexual harassment in order to combat double standards.
“Totally agree, educate yourself that sexual harassment doesn’t have any gender,” said @adinda.syif.
“A great and clear explanation and reminder,” wrote @sugarjuju.
