It's happened. 280 kids. Two hundred and eighty. 200 + 80 kids. It’s been happening. Hundreds after hundreds. The saddest part is, it will keep happening.
Not because of the deafeningly disgusting reaction, or the broadcast media's partial eclipse in favor of all things more important than the molestation and rape of children, no, but because this abuse is as much part of our culture as weeklong weddings. And it would be easier to rid us of weeklong festivities.
Whenever something tragic as this event happens, people who want to do something about it look towards the 'why', the reason. In Pakistan, we look for scapegoats and excuses. Anything to keep the land of the pure stain free in our stain free heads. Our reactions, as always, were shameless.
Rana Sanaullah, PMLN's Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs & Public Prosecution has labelled the case a conspiracy to defame and shame Pakistan. But what could possibly be more shaming and defaming than a grown man in the utmost position of power trying to erase the trauma, experience and pain of 300 odd kids for the sake of keeping face. Who do these kids turn to then? To whom do they complain? Should they even speak? This event happened in no vacuum. It happened in an environment festered and nurtured by the likes of Rana Sanullah, an environment where abusers and child molestors are protected in the name of "bad impressions".
Broadcast media paid little attention to the issue on the day the news broke, some absolutely ignored it. Some might say it was because they feared offending the public. One might try to find comfort in the fact that they might get too offended at the abuse and act rashly; no, not in Pakistan, Pakistan will drive all the hope it can out of you. Broadcasters feared they would be targetted for being shameless infidels for broadcasting this filth on TV! TV is something we desi people watch with our families yaar, a place where we can throw curses at people who don't agree with us with minimal energy loss. A place where we can watch mindless entertainment and trashy reenactments of "scandals" that have affected women to release our tension, koi tou jagga rehne do. Others, when they finally picked up on it were more concerned with getting credit for being the one to break the news.
What shame. We have to tip toe around grown adults lest they get offended with brutal realities of the culture and society they live and breed in, lest they themselves come into contact with the wrongs that have happened to millions of other desis. Lest they feel a sense of responsibility to their country's children and compatriots. Lest they come to realize what sort of culture they've enveloped themselves and their kids in.
When was the last time an average Pakistani parent sat their kids down and explained to them the world of pedophilia and child abuse out there? When did they show outrage, disbelief and threaten to kill over this issue? We are brought up to hate and be fearful of consensual intercourse between adults, we are taught shame, we are told to be ashamed of wrongs that others do to us, we are taught to zip ourselves off from this aspect of life unless one wants a beating or a severe scolding. Why? Because child abuse has to live on; it is part of culture. Either because elders cannot come to terms with their own experiences or because the playground has to be safe and silent enough for them to abuse. To give a cover to this culture of abuse is why the conversation is closed off before it even begins.
Others called for 'public hangings’ – please rest assured this makes abusers feel secure, because, frankly, how many will/can you hang? That too, publicly? Pick any adult in our country at random and chances are high that they will be a child abuser. Most abusers are chaacha, maama, taayas, are mothers, are fathers and which family in Pakistan would have their own member stained? In this culture that we have cultivated, which child would stand up to an elder of the family, knowing full well that if they're a boy, they will be perceived weak for the rest of their life, and if they're a girl, soiled and crazy? That they will be interrogated for what they did to bring this upon themself. If you're an average Pakistani, you have been shamed by parents for "being weak", for complaining, for demanding to be treated better.
Child abuse is not as simple as an illness in our holy Pakistan, it is also a form of punishment and is considered an esoteric taste. Child abuse is also daily in our houses where parents fail to understand that they do not own their children, that their children are entire individuals on their own, that beating and molesting is not their god-given right. So who and how many will you hang?
This victim blaming and shaming culture, this vast amphitheater of silence is the space that these abusers operate in. This stigma associated with the talk of sexuality and the state of lawlessness as demonstrated by PMLN as of yet is what drives their confidence in the fact that they will never be brought to justice. These abusers build their profile on the shaming of their victim.
But you know what is shameful? Rana Sanaullah, more ideology than man, being a minister. What is shameful is that parents are above the law – I know of people (who were abused as kids) to whom the police have indignantly replied "parents know best, beta, you will be thankful for this". What is shameful is that we are all so familiar with child abuse and have yet done nothing to stop it. What is shameful is that we have the gall to call such a horrendous incident a "land dispute". What is shameful is that there was an entire market where unspeakable torment of children was sold for PKR 50. What is shameful is that we have failed to protect kids, legally and socially. And we refuse to be ashamed of it. We refuse to even acknowledge it!
"Sohni dharti, Allah rakhe// qadam, qadam abaad tujhe" reads the milli-naghma we are rebooting on our 68th Independence Day tomorrow. And we have done nothing to ensure this.
