Dosa Siapa: Whose Sin Was it?

Dosa Siapa as I translated as Whose Sin Was It, reveals three stories which roots at one starting point. A story of Faridah, a woman who was gang raped. Due to the rape she was pregnant and later gave away her son. She left her son at the step of a surau. Thus, Dosa Siapa centred around Faridah’s anger, revenge, trauma, paranoia, hysteria and guilt.

Dosa Siapa questioned the issue of our typical social problems. Those are familiar and close to us such as the issue of an abandon child, a homeless woman and husband's secret affair.

It uses the element of gang rape as the drama’s narrative drive which serves as a tool to move the story. Hence, this element fragmented into various emotional drives such as anger, revenge, trauma, paranoia, hysteria and guilt. It is these emotional drives that construct the three story of Dosa Siapa.

First, the story of Hamidah, Faridah’s sister, represents Faridah’s anger and revenge. Second, the story of Shahrul, Faridah’s illegitimate son – who she conceives from the gang raped- represents Faridah’s trauma and guilt. The third story is the story of herself, which represents her paranoia and hysteria after the traumatic event – the gang rape.

What interest me most is the conceptualisation of Sofia, an imaginary daughter of Hamidah. We identify her as Hamidah’s ‘real’ daughter immediately as the story first introduces her to us; at the beginning of Hamidah’s story. To a certain degree, Sofia ‘holds’ Hamidah’s sanity. In the sense that she represents Hamidah’s consciousness. Clearly, through Sofia, Hamidah’s image is uphold as a loving mother. But later, when the true identity of Sofia is revealed - through Zahra’s lens [a reporter] we learned that there was only Hamidah in that photo, thus, Sofia did not exist- the image of Hamidah as a caring mother is shattered. Hamidah to us, at this moment, is a crazy woman. However, much later in the story, as Hamidah talks to the psychiatrist, she ignores Sofia’s present. Sofia then walks away. At this moment, the notion of Sofia who walks away signifies Hamidah stage of consciousness. Her actions of ignoring Sofia indicates she has gains back her sanity.

In brief, Dosa Siapa represents a story of question. The story urges us into questioning whose sin was it? Is it Faridahs’? Since she is the one who creates the ‘chaos’? Or is it Hamidahs’? She, who manages to save herself from the gang rapist and left Faridah helpless, as she runs away to seek for help, while the gang is still capturing Faridah. Or is it the rapists’ sin’? Since it is them who actually start the whole ‘story’, thus are responsible for Faridah’s traumatic experience: trauma, paranoia, hysteria, anger, revenge and guilt.

Whose sin is it, then? My answer points to the gang rapist. And Faridah is the victim thus Shahrul is the result of their action. To add, their action fragmented to other social problem such as an abandon child-Shahrul- and the rest of the stories in Dosa Siapa?