He Siyun, a teacher in China’s southwestern province of Guizhou, was horrified when she found out that a male colleague had been molesting female students.
Ms He petitioned the police and her school authorities, who instead fired her. In September, the teacher she had accused was sentenced to four years in prison; Ms He’s story went viral, and she was lauded as a feminist hero on social media. Yet a month later she discovered she had been put on a blacklist and falsely labelled as a drug user, which prevented her from finding a job or even taking a train.
“They thought I would create more trouble by raising more attention for this issue,” Ms He told the Financial Times.