Tears of blood

We should all be crying alongside the small madressah student from Mansehra currently in hospital in Abbottabad. Yet even a crime as horrendous as the one he suffered does not appear to have moved many in the country. This indifference is perhaps the reason that, according to figures from a reputable NGO, over 1,300 children suffered sexual abuse in the first half of 2019. Little was done to protect other children. The case in Mansehra is horrifying. A 10-year-old boy is reported to have been sodomised over a hundred times by his madressah teacher and four accomplices. The child is stated by doctors to have had blood drip from his eyes after the hours of trauma. He is currently unable to speak, walk or eat.

While the alleged perpetrator, whose unregistered madressah has been sealed and who is under arrest along with his accomplices, continues to insist that this is an NGO-led conspiracy and that a committee of ulema should be setup to look into it, the family of the victim have reacted with anger. The family says that a joint inquiry team be set up and all the facts ascertained. We hope this will happen. But it is also true that similar offences have occurred before with only limited action taken. Parents send their children to madressahs thinking these are safe places which will allow them to educate their children without the burden of unjustifiable fees being charged by the country’s education system. Needless to say, there have been far too many instances where parents have been proven wrong on this count.

We need to do more to keep our children safe. It is impossible to comprehend what agony the small boy in Mansehra suffered at the hands of his adult torturers. The trauma he suffered is one he is likely to carry with him for the rest of his life. It is not enough to demand exemplary punishment for the rapists. It is essential also to find some way to regulate educational institutions, particularly madressahs, to screen teachers running these institutions, to make parents aware of possible risks and to also educate children about openly reporting any incident of molestation or sexual harassment. Unless we act, and act decisively, such incidents will continue to occur and more stories of unspeakable horror will flash out on the media or perhaps – as happens in many cases – go unreported.