Status as a teacher, a holy man or a cleric should not bring trust. PHOTO: CREATIVE COMMONS
The lack of monitoring and control over madrassas has led to many children sent to them being criminally assaulted or badly mistreated. We need to ask if we can afford to put other children at such risk. Indeed, many cases of abuse at seminaries may not have come to light and recent focus on child rape following the abuse of a five-year-old in Lahore is one of the reasons other cases are coming forward. This will only be a temporary phenomenon. We need lasting solutions and better protection for children and indeed, all victims of rape.
The case has also exposed a little more about our society. It has shown that piety is often nothing more than hypocrisy, with persons using their status in society to harm its most vulnerable members. People everywhere need to be made more aware of the risks. Status as a teacher, a holy man or a cleric should not bring trust and all persons who misuse their standing in this manner deserve to be punished, under the law and also socially, to deter others. The little girl in Multan was fortunate she was rescued. Others, of course, may not be quite so lucky, and the incident at the graveyard should teach us all a lesson about a society where evil comes in many different forms.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2013.
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COMMENTS (8)
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Its very sinful crime but thanks to write this article for understanding and believing that what should parents do now and how much they can care their children to get education with safety.
@Naeem: @Jahil: I thank you both wholeheartedly from the depth of my heart for your sincerity and understanding. I am not saying this just for the sake of it but I mean it really and very sincerely.
@Naeem: @Jahil:
I thank you both very wholeheartedly and from the bottom of my heart. I am not saying this just for the sake of it but really and sincerely mean it. Thanks to you both.
@Raj - USA:
You are 100% correct. It is very sad that in Pakistan every body is using religion for his or her own ends. Mullah is the biggest culprit, for him religion is his business and livelihood and he takes good advantage of ignorant Muslim's lack of knowledge of Islam. May God save Islam and humanity from these wicked Mullahs and their ignorant followers.
@Naeem: Thank you very much for understanding. I sincerely and wholeheartedly appreciate it.
@Usman, I can understand where Raj is coming from and his frustration of how soceity has approved the marriage of a 2 year Hindu gil to a 40 year old Muslim man and also his concern as to why our society remains silent when Hind girls are forcibly married to Muslim men. One bad thng leads to another. Noeit is the attempted rape of a 3 year old girl- irrespective of wether she is a Muslim or Hindu. Most of our clerics are very corrupt and immoral people. It is also our obligation to protect he weak, the minority religons or minority sects from any kind of abuse. We as a scoeity have failed and thus we see such a abusive condition.
@Raj - USA: How exactly did this turn into a rant about Hindu or Muslim girls?
This little girl was lucky in the sense that she escaped rape. She was unlucky in the sense that the mulla attempted his acts in the graveyard. The young hindu girls are unlucky in the sense that they were not taken to the graves but to the homes of "Good Muslims of Pakistan". They were unlucky in the sense that they were actually raped there. To make it worse the Chief Justice praised the kidnapers and the women in the muslim homes assisted their men in the acts and also prevented the girl from coming out of the home or meeting anyone including her family. This little girl is lucky in the sense that she was returned back to her home but nothing has ever been heard of even one hindu girl who was taken to the home of "Good Muslims of Pakistan". No one writes about them, no one cares for them, and no one wants to probe their NADRA records, though everyone knows that she may have been pushed to a brothel or sold off to talibans. This is what the Asian Human Rights Commission says in their july 2013 report. Is it hard to find out where theres girls are now or at least to find out if any of these girls are still married to the muslim who kidnaped her. Muslim families have been praising and promoting these acts for decades and now muslim girls and infants are being targeted. It is all religion, the way it is practiced by muslims in Pakistan, by both men and woman. This mulla is no different from other muslims of Pakistan. They all use religion to achieve their ends. If anyone would make a systematic and objective study, they would find that the forced conversions are start of all evils, be it hatred for hindus or hatred for christians and even hatred for shias as these types of conversions is nothing but expression of extreme hate for others and also extreme hate of Islam itself. We never saw any true good muslims opposing then and we see the good muslims in action now against their own. Remember many of those hindu girls were kidnaped even from their homes. No good change will ever come unless the society starts to examine itself, starting with its own actions in the past. You cannot eradicate an evil when you justify the same done to others in the name of religion. Start with probe of raped conversion of hindu girls. When the courts recognized marriage of 12 year old hindu girls to 40 year old muslim men with prior wife and 20 year old daughter, how can just condemning the rape of 10 year old muslim girl ever stop these types of vices? Keep writing as much as you can. It may bring you some feeling that you are doing something good, but nothing good will ever happen when you promote and cover up some and selectively choose to stop others.