PETALING JAYA: Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam, the teenager whose TikTok video detailing inappropriate rape jokes made by a teacher went viral in April, says she has been hit with a RM1 million defamation suit.
“Today, I suddenly received a letter of demand for ‘defamatory statements’,” said the Form 5 student in a Twitter post.
“In the letter, I was given seven days to respond to the demands, including to settle RM1,000,000 in damages.”
She added that she got the letter while she was in an online class.
Ain was unable to comment on the issue when contacted by FMT and said she would reveal more details of the letter later.
Meanwhile, in a post on his Twitter account, Ain’s father Saiful said he received a letter of demand from the law firm of Rasshidi Ema & Yung and would not be commenting on the matter for now.
“We will seek advice from a lawyer about our rights and further action,” he said.
Saiful however told the Malay Mail that the letter of demand was from the teacher alleged to have made the rape joke.
He said he was puzzled by the teacher’s actions.
“The letter was issued by the teacher for defamation, although we never mentioned his name or the school’s,” he told the portal.
Ain, who was pivotal in getting the #MakeSchoolASaferPlace hashtag to trend on social media, claimed in April that her school’s physical fitness and health education teacher jokingly encouraged his students at SMK Puncak Alam, Selangor, to commit rape.
After news of this went viral, the education ministry said that the teacher had been transferred to the state education department.
It was later reported that Ain received a rape threat from a male classmate, which her father reported to police. The student later apologised for making the threat, and Ain’s father was said to have accepted the apology.
Ain was also described as a “child of the devil wearing a headscarf” (“anak setan pakai tudung”) on the Facebook page belonging to her school principal, thus sparking more uproar among netizens as they called for the education ministry to take action.
However, the principal alleged that her Facebook account was hacked and lodged a police report.