Daily Times

The recent spate of rapes of minor girls, and the outpouring of news in print and electronic media have caused uncertainty and fear among young girls. This gruesome situation calls for productive measures to be taken to secure life and honour of girls from vicious attacks of the barbaric elements.

The ever-increasing incidents of child sexual abuse are evidence of barbarism prevailing in Pakistani society. On July 24, 2016, a 10-year-old girl was gang-raped in Shikarpur. Earlier in July, a five-year-old girl was raped and strangled to death in Peshawar. Another five-year-old girl was killed after she was raped by her father’s friend in Larkana. Two months ago, a minor girl in Lahore was allegedly raped by a deputy superintendent of police. A 16-year-old Hindu girl in Sanghar, Sindh, was killed after a sexual assault by the son of a police constable. This year in January, a teenage girl was gang-raped by a group of men after being drugged in a guesthouse in Lahore.

These are not the only cases of innocent lives lost to human depravity, but countless such inhuman activities occur with no qualm and fear. It is as if no law exists in the country to catch and punish these criminals.

In Pakistan, like many parts of the world, child sexual abuse is the most pervasive form of violence against children. The reports show that not only strangers but also family members, relatives, acquaintances and neighbours are found to be involved in raping and killing of minor girls and boys. The patriarchal family structure, based on the unnatural process of gender discrimination giving dominant position to male members, treats women as the inferior gender, especially in the rural areas of the country. The superiority complex encourages males to adopt, at a young age, discourteous behaviour with females.

Minor girls who become victims of sexual violence are mostly killed by their rapists, but those who survive are deprived of the right of a respectable and honourable status in society. They, once it is known they are rape victims, receive a hateful behaviour in social gatherings, working places and educational institutions, where they are treated with insults and ridicule. Society subjects them to the highest level of prejudice. The rigid-minded males who are a product of traditional patriarchal family structure, both relatives and outsiders, once they are familiar with childhood sexual abuse of a female are reluctant to make her a life partner, or to give her a respectable place in society. As a result, the victims, with a developed sense of chagrin and helplessness, lead a painful and secluded life, which in some cases become unbearable for them, forcing them to end their lives.

Girls who fall prey to sexual abuse in childhood face countless challenges their whole lives. Medical science demonstrates that survivors of childhood abuse might experience unusual feelings of stress, fear, depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, sexual disorders and suicidal behaviour, etc. Some survivors of sexual assault use self-harm to cope with difficult or painful feelings, while some survivors report using substances like alcohol and drugs. They display a lot of short and long term psychological symptoms, feeling significant distress. They feel powerless, ashamed, betrayed and distrustful of adults because someone they depended on caused them great harm or failed to protect them.

Islamabad-based NGO, Sahil, reports that most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; 0.3 percent are relatives of the victim — uncles or cousins; 2.5 percent cases are of incest, committed most often by brothers and fathers; around 50 percent are acquaintances, such as friends of the family; 0.3 percent are neighbours; 35 percent are strangers, and four percent are others.

Mostly, rape cases are not reported because of fear for safety of the victim, and misplaced notions of family honour. When people despite enormous social pressures and stigmas are courageous enough to report the cases, and when they are not provided medical and legal support fairly — either due to political pressure or pressure from the accused — justice is not dispensed to them. This situation compels the victims to remain silent instead of reporting their tragedies. Thus, the culture of rape of young girls remains unchecked in our society.

From a sociological perspective, the informal social-control mechanism is more effective than formal social-control mechanism to ensure conformity of social norms and moral values. Individuals disapproving of deviant behaviours through anger, criticism and protest play a significant role in bringing about social justice and peace in society. But I am immensely surprised and dismayed having seen in our society a wicked and deep-rooted tradition of silence surrounding the phenomenon of rape. It is incomprehensible why the general public is reluctant to express its anger against and in condemnation of this inhuman social vice affecting our daughters and sisters, and resulting in an unwarranted blot on their life and honour. Since we are well aware of the fact that if today our neighbour’s daughter or sister has been made prey to a sexual deprivation, tomorrow the victim could be someone related to us.

It is a fact that sexual activity with a child is a criminal and immoral behaviour that can never be considered normal or socially acceptable. It is the worst case of a human rights violation. Such attacks are the outcome and evidence of the existence of moral degradation and barbarism in our society.

What is needed without delay is founding of welfare institutions manned with professional individuals, by government and philanthropic NGOs, for providing rape victims with easy and cheap access to legal, moral and social assistance. In many cases, families of reported victims of rape do not have financial resources to approach courts to seek justice for violence done to a female in their family.

In March 2016, the Senate amending the penal code passed a bill that criminalises, for the first time, sexual assault against minors, child pornography and trafficking. Under the amended legislation, sexual assaults will be punishable by up to seven years in prison, and child pornography will be punishable by seven years in prison and a fine of 0.7 million rupees. To purge our society of the curse of child sexual abuse and the heinous crime of rape of young girls, it is imperative that the award of punishments and implementation of the amended law is carried out without any delay or any loophole.

The writer is an academic, and can be reached on Twitter @ARShykh