KUCHING: When Sasha Jones Achan (not her real name), a 28-year-old transwoman from Kuching, decided to bravely open up about the distressing and devastating experiences she faced as a victim of domestic violence, she knew it would not be easy for her to get protection from any enforcement authority.
While incidents of violence against women in Malaysia are regularly highlighted in the media, incidents of violence against transgender people are underreported.
According to Justice for Sisters, a non-profit organisation that works for rights for transgender people in Malaysia, there is an upward trend in transgender killings in the last four years in the country.
Between 2017 and 2019, Malaysia recorded at least nine cases of transgender killings. This made up 47 percent of the total 19 cases of transgender killings reported between 2007 and October 2019.
Sasha said it took her two months to pluck up courage to see the police about her domestic violence case.
“When I lodged the report, the policemen on duty did not seem to take my complaint seriously. They sort of blamed me, as if I deserved to be abused just because I was a transwoman,” she shared in an exclusive interview with New Sarawak Tribune recently.
The 28-year-old from Kuching said she had to run away and hide herself at a friend’s house when she ended the relationship.
“Whenever I told him I wanted to end our relationship, he would become angry and aggressive.
“I have been beaten up with metal pieces many times. I could not do anything except cry and hope he would change,” she explained.
Sasha added that she was not only abused physically but also psychologically.
“Whenever I spent the nights with my friends or family, he would turn up at my workplace and demanded that I go home.
“He would threaten me to make chaos at my workplace if I refused to return home. He felt he had the right to do anything he wanted.
“He would also humiliate me in front of the public, shouting at me and calling me ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’,” she added.
Sasha said it took her a long time to go to the police because she was too ashamed to confide in anyone.
“I often felt torn between wanting the violence to end and not wanting him to be in jail.
“When I managed to leave him, he repeatedly called and texted me and threatened to kill my family and friends if he could not find me.
“My life was full of anxiety and fear at that time,” she said.
Asked whether she told anyone her story at that particular time, Sasha explained that she was reluctant to do so because of the negative attitudes towards transwomen.
“I wondered if the help hotlines would assist people like us. I don’t think that the public would help people like us because we are always seen as someone who solicit sex.
“I am aware and fully understand that the public find it hard to accept people like me.
“But this doesn’t mean that we — the transgender — deserve to be abused. Like everyone else, we are humans, too.
“No one, including animals, deserve to be abused.
“Being abused is not something that is easy to brush off. It is a lifelong trauma I have to deal with,” said Sasha.
