Modern women, healthy choices

1 September 2010

Sunway campus has celebrated Women's Week with many high profile women sharing their knowledge and expertise with a focus on women's health.

Professor Jamiyah Hassan, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at University of Malaya Medical Centre spoke to staff and students of the Sunway campus about sexual health.

"In this era, educated women should not be afraid to discuss sexual health, which includes contraception education," she said.

Women from the Breast Cancer Welfare Association (BCWA) presented an informative talk and conducted a workshop where participants were encouraged to learn about breast cancer diagnoses.

Representatives from Women's Aid Organisation also spoke about sexual harassment and highlighted the problems for Malaysian women who were afraid to lodge reports due to a lack of knowledge of laws, or the fear of not being believed, losing their jobs or that the report would be ignored.

Women's Aid wanted to convey the strong message that regardless of age, race, religion, profession, social status and culture, women were enduring harassments in various ways, be it physical, verbal, visual or psychological and that this behaviour should not be tolerated.

Advocate of "Pregnancy by choice, not by chance" Miss Malaysia 2007 Ms Deborah Henry shared the realities of unplanned pregnancies with Sunway campus staff and students.

"We know the consequences of unprotected sex and we know the contraceptive options, so there is no excuse for us to not take the responsibility to protect ourselves," Ms Henry said.