"Parkson At Pavilion Mall Prices A Woman's Modesty At Only RM1,000"
"On the 1st of May 2015, I, Amanda Sabri was humiliated in the Wallis changing rooms at Parkson, Pavilion."
By Sadho Ram — 01 Jul 2015, 05:45 PM
Earlier today, 1 July, Facebook user Amanda Sabri published a post referring to an incident that took place at Parkson, Pavilion Mall, exactly two months ago, on 1 May. In the post, Amanda details how she was humiliated while she was using the Wallis changing room.
From Amanda Sabri's Facebook post:
"On the 1st of May 2015, I, Amanda Sabri was humiliated in the Wallis changing rooms at Parkson, Pavilion. As I was in the midst of trying on one of the items (note: at that moment still undressed), a male salesperson walks into the changing area and flips open the curtain that acts as a door to protect a woman's modesty."
Pointing out how it wasn't an accident, she mentions in her post, which has since gone viral among Malaysians, that these changing rooms are not only in an all female section of the department store, but it was also in a section which was sublet to Wallis. She writes:
"The male salesperson who flipped the curtain - he was from Hush Puppies. What was he doing there? Only god knows.
He had a good look at me.. that I'm sure. Because I too had a good look at him. After he left, I was in shock and a million thoughts went through my head."
In shock, Amanda thought to herself what she should do. Should she leave it behind and move on, considering that such things must happen to quite a few people? However, it was in that moment when the thought of this happening to her daughter hit her.
"One day, something like this could happen to my daughter too. Will I just stand aside, and tell her that its ok for the male salesperson to have a look at her body without clothes on?
Will I teach her that its not worth speaking up to a big retailer, because we are worthless? Will women always be victims, but never have the courage to speak up?"
Realising that she couldn't take such a chance, Amanda decided to speak up. She first spoke directly to the male salesperson himself, to the managers on duty, and even to few other male and female representatives at their head office. However, nothing happened.
"Other than a million "We are sorry" coming from their Management, there has been nothing else. Nothing else that I feel was enough to prove that they too felt that the act was not acceptable."
"They did however," wrote Amanda, "offer me a RM1,000 Parkson Giftcard," which she declined. In other words, Parkson at Pavilion prices a woman's modesty at only RM1,000, she wrote in the post.
She mentioned that the incident has scarred her.
"Since then, I have made an active effort to not purchase or try on clothes from stores which have male attendants."
Amanda hopes that her post gets more women to feel brave and gives them courage to speak up.
"It starts with a guy 'accidentally' opening a changing room door, then he will accidentally rape you too." Her post has so far been shared over 1,000 times.