Daily Times

Children around the globe are being sexually abused and killed. We feel outraged after an incident comes to the fore but it is business as usual a few days later. The government, child protection committees and even parents have failed to protect the children.

In Pakistan, 7-year-old Zainab Ansari was brutally murdered after being raped. Her body was found from the heap of garbage. The rapist is yet to get arrested. People of Kasur came out on the streets to protest against this heinous crime and the whole country was moved. People on social media also protested the horrific incident using the hashtag #JusticeForZainab.

Shortly after the incident, another 6-year-old child named Muhammad Waqas was brutally raped and stabbed to death in Rahim Yar Khan. A four-year-old girl Asma was raped and strangled to death in Mardan. There are several other victims across the country. In the first half of 2017, more than 1,750 cases of child abuse were reported across Pakistan and the highest number of victims was reported from Punjab.

In India, a child under 16 is raped every 155 minutes and a child under 10, every 13 hours. More than 10,000 children were raped in 2015. 53 per cent of children who participated in a national survey, stated that they had experienced some form of sexual abuse. 50 per cent of abusers are known to the child or are ‘persons in trust and care-givers’. According to the British National Crime Agency, 72,000 referrals were received about online child abuse in the first few month of 2017.

Religious clerics stay focused on what women should and should not wear, and turn a blind eye to their maltreatment at the hands of men

Besides all the news coming out of Pakistan and India, the most shocking news of this week came out from Russia where a 34-years-old Russian couple abused their 12 year-old daughter in threesome sexual activity. The couple has been accused of turning their own daughter in to sex slave. They could get 20 years in prison for this heinous crime. The victim’s mother said in her statement that she was also raped at the age of 13 and that they were trying to teach their daughter ‘adult life in advance’.

That the third world countries are far from proper sexual education and ignorance is one of the factors that contribute to prevalence of such crimes. Countries like Saudi Arabia or Gulf states consider that the dress code of women played a major role in sexual urge. During a Pakistani talk show about Zainab Ansari’s rape, a so-called intellectual named Orya Maqbool Jan said that the clothing of women plays a major role in sexual urge and it brought the rapist to the edge of committing the horrific crime. This argument is flawed at best, because the culture of rape also exist in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Gulf and Iraq where it is mandatory for the women to cover themselves in veils. This is because religious clergy stays focused on what women should and should not wear and turns a blind eye to their maltreatment at the hands of men. Russia is said to have the best education system, but the kids there are abused even by their own parents.

If we have a deep look on both eastern and western societies. The exploitation of women and kids is equally rampant. East blames West for immodesty and West blames East for conservatism. But neither West could control the crimes against women and children in spite of their claim of being the torchbearer women’s liberation, nor could the eastern societies control the atrocities against women and children despite their claims about possessing strong religious foundation and values. The problem lies in sexism, misogynistic behaviour and patriarchal approach that is all about the desire to control women’s body. Although Western woman is seen as liberated but she is also forced to dress herself according to certain standards set by the society.

The incident that took place in the Nice city of France in 2016 revealed how much freedom of choice a western woman actually enjoys. Armed police on the Nice beach forced a Moroccan woman to take off her Burkini.

In the eastern societies, women’s bodies and thoughts are controlled in the name of traditions and societal norms. These traditions are applied only to womenfolk and men are left free to do whatever they please. The twisted interpretations of religions continue being used as a means to claim control over a woman’s body. All the religions known to mankind promoted values based on humanity but they are being misinterpreted by those who sell religion for personal gains. This is why crimes against women and children continue to take place.

The writer is a journalist based in Belgium and is a, writer, teacher, translator, human activist, focusing on human rights, gender equality and peace

Published in Daily Times, January 21^st 2018.