Sukma, for her part, told us she was called to Abah’s house to discover two police officers and an NWDI lawyer waiting for her. They forced her to sign a document saying all her allegations were lies, she said. Her account is backed up by a secret recording she later made as she challenged Abah’s wife, Hurmiati.
Hurmiati can be heard telling her to respect their “agreement” that nothing happened, adding: “Do you want this to haunt you for the rest of your life? Do you want it to damage the chances of you getting married?”
This pressure even extended to Abah asking Yusron’s parents to fly to Jakarta to look for him at university. They didn’t find him – he was hiding in a hotel – but the ordeal was too much for Yusron’s mother. She told her son the stress was killing her.
So Yusron reluctantly stopped his investigation.
Meanwhile he and Zia were slowly getting closer. The friendship had become a long-distance relationship, and they were regularly speaking on the phone.
“And I could see she was really struggling… She’d say things like: ‘Why do I keep thinking about what [Abah] did?’.”
Yusron was torn between helping the girl he was falling in love with, and the promise he had made to his mother.
And then, eight months later, Yusron heard about a group raising awareness about sexual abuse in Islamic schools. It had been set up by a young woman called Ayu Masruroh, who had helped her friend get justice after she had been sexually assaulted at another school, by a teacher called Moch Subchi Azal Tsani.
Ayu was now actively posting on social media about the need to speak out.
It inspired Zia to post a call-out on Instagram, asking any Indonesian student who had experienced abuse to get in touch.
And she was to discover that, despite Abah’s remonstrations, and promises to change, he had apparently offended again. Someone who went to Zia’s school got in touch to say she too had been sexually exploited by Abah. The alleged abuse had taken place almost a year after his pledges to Zia and Yusron.
“It made me realise [Abah] hadn’t really changed at all… all the things he said about stopping… It was all just lies,” said Zia.
Yusron’s parents finally agreed he should help Zia and Sukma to continue their quest for justice.
But this time, the friends decided to do things differently. They contacted Ayu, and she was clear: get a lawyer. She introduced them to someone experienced in representing sexual abuse survivors. He advised that Sukma’s case was the strongest to ensure a prosecution.
We contacted Abah and Hurmiati about the allegations against them – they did not respond.
NWDI said it was still investigating the allegations internally and denied ever trying to cover up sexual abuse claims.
It said it had “a duty to safeguard the organisation from being tarnished by the alleged actions of individuals”.
Sukma filed her claim against Abah to the police in February last year. She is still waiting for them to take action and Abah is still in post.
“I don’t want what happened to me, to happen to any other students. I want justice,” she told the BBC.
The investigation has, however, brought Zia and Yusron ever closer. Last February, after three years of messaging and speaking, Yusron decided to move to Cairo to be with her.
