The tragic situation in Pakistan is that even our innocent souls are not safe from these evils
PESHAWAR: I am deeply saddened at the immoral and corrupt present norms of our society. Although the Zainab Alert Bill has been passed by Parliament, our society as a whole has failed.
We have become a society where sexual assault and more tragically paedophilic assaults have seen a jump over the past decade. According to NGO Sahil, on average 11 underage sexual assaults happen across Pakistan on a daily basis.
We need to understand why in the first place a sexual assault happens. The foremost reason to associate with sexual assault is gender inequality. Gender based violence is the root cause in our society and opens ways to even greater sins. Due to cultural and social stigmas attached with identifying harassers, many such cases go unreported or undetected. This exudes a feeling of immunity and fearlessness amongst the assaulters, and therefore at another day one more individual falls victim to this tribulation.
The tragic situation in Pakistan is that even our innocent souls are not safe from these evils. Our children have had to face the dirty acts of these criminals and devils. Very recently, in Nowshera a seven-year-old girl was raped and killed by two men. What morals have been portrayed here? What sort of a culture is this? What explanation exists for this inhumane act?
Being an ‘Islamic Republic’ why has Pakistan failed to address this catastrophe? This question needs to be asked by every individual in authority. These little flower-like children are the warmth of a mothers’ heart and the glow of the eyes of a father, and yet they are so easily abused and killed.
If we don’t help in eradicating this evil from our society, we will inevitably as a whole fall down.
Rehan Hameed Karimi
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2020.
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