http://209.238.55.27/tft2.htm
(From The Friday Times)
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Pakistan's wall of silence on
child abuse
(by Richard Galpin)
Anew report on attitudes to child sex abuse in Pakistan's North-West
Frontier Province paints a horrifying picture of widespread abuse. The
report shows that much of the population believes that the sexual abuse of
young boys is a matter of pride.
The United Nations is shortly to publish the first nation-wide survey on
child sex-abuse in Pakistan - an acutely sensitive subject in this deeply
conservative Islamic country.
The first indications of the scale of the problem have been revealed in this
early report from North-West Frontier Province. It shows that one third of
those who took part in the survey did not even believe that child sexual
abuse was a bad thing - let alone a crime.
The UN believes the sexual abuse of young children is widespread in some
areas of the country but that until now it has been hidden behind a wall of
silence.
In Pakistan much of the population lives in squalid slums where children are
forced to play their part in the day to day survival of the family. That means
working in places such as the notorious Pirwadhai bus station in Rawalpindi.
Here there are hundreds of young boys at work in the grimy workshops and
sleazy hotels on which the bus station's reputation is based for this is a
centre of child sexual abuse.
One boy told me that local hotels encouraged the trade: "The hotel-owners
employ children who are used to attract customers. The customers are then
told what kind of services are provided and that they can do what they
want with the children. The hotels here are very well known for these
services. And it's good money for us."
Their clients are men from all backgrounds - travelling from one part of the
country to another - thus freed from the constraints of life at home in this
conservative society. With girls mostly kept at home - they prey on these
working boys who are extremely vulnerable to abuse.
Although at present there is little data on child sexual abuse in Pakistan,
experts such as the clinical psychologist, Kamran Ahmad, believe it is
widespread: "There is a lot of repression of sexuality so what happens is
that it shows up in unhealthy forms. You rarely find healthy expressions of
sexuality in everyday life so sexual abuse becomes very common"
For the victims it is a terrifying ordeal. A boy told us how he had been raped
when he was just 7 years old. He said the men in his village were like dogs.
"They would eat you like a dog", he said. "It was not safe for any young
fair-skinned boy to go out alone. It was a tradition to molest boys."
According to the report many people in Frontier Province are also well
aware that men in the area keep boys specifically for sex.
All this seems to be a result of the rigid segregation of men and women in
Pakistan, which is most seriously enforced in the Pashtoon areas of the
North. Under Pashtoon culture it is very difficult for a young man to
interact with the opposite sex - particularly in the rural areas. Young boys
therefore become the targets of abuse.
But the government is starting to recognise the issue. Secretary at the
Ministry of Women's Development and Social Welfare at the time of this
interview, Muzzafar Quresh, says : "We're beginning to realise that it is a
serious problem.
"We've initiated several studies to try to measure the extent and there's
also some evidence coming out about what happens to children and the need
for greater attention to rehabilitate them and to bring them back to a
normal social life."
But in reality only a handful of organisations are helping children at risk of
being exploited and abused. The subject is still far too hidden for there to
be a concerted campaign to rescue the many victims.
The publication of the nationwide survey on child sexual abuse is a critical
test for both the government and Pakistani society as a whole.
It will prompt painful introspection - but the hope is that it will lead to
positive reform.
(From The Friday Times)
************************************************** ******************************
Pakistan's wall of silence on
child abuse
(by Richard Galpin)
Anew report on attitudes to child sex abuse in Pakistan's North-West
Frontier Province paints a horrifying picture of widespread abuse. The
report shows that much of the population believes that the sexual abuse of
young boys is a matter of pride.
The United Nations is shortly to publish the first nation-wide survey on
child sex-abuse in Pakistan - an acutely sensitive subject in this deeply
conservative Islamic country.
The first indications of the scale of the problem have been revealed in this
early report from North-West Frontier Province. It shows that one third of
those who took part in the survey did not even believe that child sexual
abuse was a bad thing - let alone a crime.
The UN believes the sexual abuse of young children is widespread in some
areas of the country but that until now it has been hidden behind a wall of
silence.
In Pakistan much of the population lives in squalid slums where children are
forced to play their part in the day to day survival of the family. That means
working in places such as the notorious Pirwadhai bus station in Rawalpindi.
Here there are hundreds of young boys at work in the grimy workshops and
sleazy hotels on which the bus station's reputation is based for this is a
centre of child sexual abuse.
One boy told me that local hotels encouraged the trade: "The hotel-owners
employ children who are used to attract customers. The customers are then
told what kind of services are provided and that they can do what they
want with the children. The hotels here are very well known for these
services. And it's good money for us."
Their clients are men from all backgrounds - travelling from one part of the
country to another - thus freed from the constraints of life at home in this
conservative society. With girls mostly kept at home - they prey on these
working boys who are extremely vulnerable to abuse.
Although at present there is little data on child sexual abuse in Pakistan,
experts such as the clinical psychologist, Kamran Ahmad, believe it is
widespread: "There is a lot of repression of sexuality so what happens is
that it shows up in unhealthy forms. You rarely find healthy expressions of
sexuality in everyday life so sexual abuse becomes very common"
For the victims it is a terrifying ordeal. A boy told us how he had been raped
when he was just 7 years old. He said the men in his village were like dogs.
"They would eat you like a dog", he said. "It was not safe for any young
fair-skinned boy to go out alone. It was a tradition to molest boys."
According to the report many people in Frontier Province are also well
aware that men in the area keep boys specifically for sex.
All this seems to be a result of the rigid segregation of men and women in
Pakistan, which is most seriously enforced in the Pashtoon areas of the
North. Under Pashtoon culture it is very difficult for a young man to
interact with the opposite sex - particularly in the rural areas. Young boys
therefore become the targets of abuse.
But the government is starting to recognise the issue. Secretary at the
Ministry of Women's Development and Social Welfare at the time of this
interview, Muzzafar Quresh, says : "We're beginning to realise that it is a
serious problem.
"We've initiated several studies to try to measure the extent and there's
also some evidence coming out about what happens to children and the need
for greater attention to rehabilitate them and to bring them back to a
normal social life."
But in reality only a handful of organisations are helping children at risk of
being exploited and abused. The subject is still far too hidden for there to
be a concerted campaign to rescue the many victims.
The publication of the nationwide survey on child sexual abuse is a critical
test for both the government and Pakistani society as a whole.
It will prompt painful introspection - but the hope is that it will lead to
positive reform.
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