- Published
Warning: This story contains details of sexual assault
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story → publish → assault
The voice on the end of the phone made Yusron Azzahidi's stomach lurch.
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stomach → make → phone
He had rung his sister's number after she had texted, urgently asking him to call.
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she → ring → him
"I knew.
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I → know → ?
I knew exactly what he wanted to talk about," Yusron says.
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Yusron → know → what
Ahmad Imanuddin Sumar, known to his students as "Abah" ["father"], had a reputation to uphold.
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Sumar → know → reputation
And Abah had discovered that Yusron and his old school friends had been collating testimony from several students who say he sexually assaulted them.
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he → discover → them
Sexual abuse in Islamic boarding schools has been described as a national emergency by Indonesia's National Commission on Violence Against Women.
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abuse → describe → Women
But many cases never reach the courts because the victims are persuaded to withdraw their allegations, or are pressured into staying quiet, legal experts say.
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experts → reach → allegations
And now Abah was on the phone to Yusron, making exactly that kind of demand.
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Abah → make → demand
Everyone makes mistakes, my child," he sobbed.
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he → make → mistakes
What he did not realise was that Yusron was recording his every word.
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Yusron → realise → word
The full story with be available in subsequent episodes of World of Secrets Catching My Teacher
Watch the full investigation on iPlayer from 0001 Monday 21 September.
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story → catch → Monday
If you are outside the UK, you will be able watch on YouTube
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you → watch → YouTube
Yusron began investigating Abah a year previously, sparked by a revelation one night by his former classmate Ziadatur Rahmah.
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Yusron → begin → classmate
Now they were at university - Yusron in the capital Jakarta, and Ziadatur in Cairo, Egypt - and had begun reminiscing over the phone about their school days.
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they → begin → days
One night Ziadatur, known to her friends as Zia, told Yusron that Abah had sexually assaulted her when she was 16.
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she → know → her
She had needed to go to the toilet during class and Abah had intercepted her in the school gardens and asked her to accompany him to his house which was on the premises.
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which → need → premises
Once inside, he had told her he loved her, she told Yusron.
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she → tell → Yusron
"He pulled me down so I was sitting on his lap…
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I → pull → lap
Then he started kissing me…
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he → start → me
He was stroking and touching my body," she later told the BBC World Service, too, explaining that he told her to do the same to him.
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he → stroke → him
Luckily, she said, one of his children began banging on the locked front door.
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one → say → door
Abah signalled to her to leave and she bolted out the back.
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she → signal → back
"I felt very dirty, ruined, and I was lost."
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I → feel → ?
Yusron, when he heard Zia's account, was unsure what to do.
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he → hear → what
Their school had inculcated them with the motto: "Sami'na wa ata'na" ["We hear, and we obey"].
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we → inculcate → motto
But he also could not stop thinking about it.
uncertain
he → stop → it
So he suggested that he and Zia, together with her school friends Wanda Hamidah and Mahima Eka, gather corroborating evidence to support her testimony.
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he → suggest → testimony
And slowly, as they spoke to their old classmates, other recollections emerged - the friends sharing their findings with each other on WhatsApp.
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friends → speak → WhatsApp
She recalled seeing a younger girl crying in the school bathroom during their final year, late at night.
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girl → recall → night
And that Abah had come looking for her, red-faced and panting
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Abah → look → her
She told the BBC about her ordeal.
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She → tell → ordeal
When Sukma was 17, Abah had asked her to join him for new year's prayers, she told us.
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she → ask → us
When she entered Abah's house, he had covered her mouth and told her to lie down, she said, before he stripped below the waist.
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he → enter → waist
"He kept talking, saying he couldn't control himself any more," Sukma said.
"He was feeling me up through my knickers…
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He → keep → knickers
He tried to rape me.
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He → try → me
And then, she said, she had found the strength to kick him hard in the stomach and took the opportunity to flee.
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she → say → opportunity
As she ran, she said she had looked back to see his torch seeking her out.
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torch → run → her
As evidence like this emerged, Yusron would co-ordinate it - following up with calls to the students making the allegations, and keeping painstaking notes.
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Yusron → emerge → notes
…and 59 more, not listed.
The Aporia
