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.
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 (@withinandromeda) November 26, 2019
Who the fuck is bu ning?! How can you let mamah-mamah whatsapp get 1.72m subscriber on youtube and have her own television program on Net(?) – desot (@dodettt) November 25, 2019
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