In August 2017, reportedly the
biggest abuse case in Pakistan’s history was unveiled regarding a child
pornography ring with approximately 400 videos of over 280, yes I repeat, 280
children being molested. This also occurred in Kasur, the place of Zainab’s rape
and murder. Before Zainab, 11 other isolated cases of molestation took place but
were not taken notice of.
The child pornography films were sold for 50 rupees in the Hussain Khanwala
village of Kasur and to pedophiles in the West for high prices.
The main perpetrator of this child pornography ring was arrested. He was later
released for 5 million rupees.5 million rupees, which is 50 lakh. A man who
deserves worse punishments than the human mind can come up with, a man who
ruined the lives of 280 children, freed for 5 million rupees. Was this the price
of the lives, dignity, and faith of those innocent souls? Souls so pure, that at
first, they couldn’t even have comprehended what was being done to them. Was
this the price of taking away their faith in humanity forever?
After molesting them, this organization had the audacity to use the tapes to
blackmail the victims and their families for money. Their temerity was, of
course, fueled by the confidence that authorities will not apprehend them. And
they were, to a large extent, correct in their assumption. In some cases,
children stole from their parents to pay off the blackmailers in an attempt to
keep their cruel ordeal a secret. This is the heartbreaking truth of our
society. A boy cannot say out loud that he was forced to perform homosexual acts
without the fear of becoming a social pariah and a laughing stock for life. A
girl tells her mother that she was raped, and her mother keeps it a secret from
fear of her little girl never being wed, from fear of the fact that society will
condemn her for being out alone, for wearing provocative clothes. Her character
will be judged despite her being the undisputable victim. Here, the victim
covers up the crime while the criminal roams unafraid. The few valiant enough
come forward with their cases are predictably the victim of public scrutiny, if
not disgrace. If they choose to rely on our judicial system for justice, they
are forced to spend money and time on countless hearings which keep being
postponed. If the criminal is somehow miraculously prosecuted, he is let out
after a pitiable bribe. The number of abusers who have received their lawful
punishment in the last decade can be counted on the fingers of one person. The
ones appointed to apprehend criminals are themselves complicit.
Today I heard a political analyst say that to lessen the number of such cases we
have to create awareness through education, education regarding child abuse and
self-defense. He said schools should hold compulsory courses regarding these
issues. This suggestion, no matter how good, will be unimaginable to some and
laughable to the rest. In this society topics like sexual abuse, child
molestation and marital rape can never be addressed publically without the
speaker being called vulgar and un-islamic. The ulemas and Islamic leaders in
our country that condemn rapists in press conferences after an abuse case gains
public attention will be the first to condemn and place fatwas on the mere
mention of such educative courses being introduced.
People like you and I, all we do is use social media to subject our follows to
long litanies about how heartbroken we are, how utterly helpless we feel. But
really, the question remains. What can we do? Everyone will have a different
answer to this, or maybe a variation of the same answer. But we do nothing,
nothing changes and people still suffer. And this is the reality of this world
we live in.