A prominent madrassa teacher, also a Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam leader, has been arrested for sexual assault against a seminary student.

The cleric allegedly promised the student, who was banned from sitting exams for allegedly cheating previously that he would eventually be able to sit the exams if he kept him ‘happy’. His ‘happiness’ meant years of sexual abuse. His arrest (and reported confession) come after the student filmed and leaked a video that went viral on social media. Public outrage and condemnation then led to a pro-active stance by the police with the promise of a thorough investigation and prosecution. The cleric has also been expelled from the JUI and the madrassa.

Before the confession and arrest, the cleric had released a contradictory video, alleging that he was drugged and, therefore, not in his full senses. He had also denied abuse saying the victim “showed no protest”. It is this point of confusion that also took over social media debate: a no-scream, no-protest victim was equated with one “consenting to the act”. Whether looking at forced conversion of girls or rape of boys at madrassas, we have failed to understand the underlying basis of unequal relationships – sexual grooming and coercion guised as consent.

Consent has a single legal definition. It is also a cross-cutting, nuanced concept of which many social media warriors, law enforcement and courts seem to be woefully unaware. Consent requires both personal and mental agency and voluntary agreement and free will, without coercion. It is precisely in the alleged grey space between coercion and free will that abuse occurs.

Grooming is a form of manipulation that is gradual and deliberate. It takes a person to a point where they can be victimised. Consent cannot be considered voluntary where there is a power imbalance between the parties – this applies even if the victim overtly appears to be “empowered”, willing or free. When perpetrators create an environment where no is not an option, the dynamics of power are being invoked. This is because consent always tilts in the favour of the person in power, leaving the person with lesser power to feel anywhere between obligation to the feeling of being coerced, since saying no is not an option.

Consent requires both personal and mental agency and voluntary agreement and free will, without coercion. It is precisely in the alleged grey space between coercion and free will that power is abused.

An important tactic seen in this case (and in similar cases of sexual exploitation) is DARVO, an acronym for ‘deny, attack, reverse victim and offender’. In this case, the video posted by the cleric was one of denial and an attempt to convince us that he was, in fact, the victim. He alleged being drugged and having differences with the administration of the madrassa that used the video to force him to resign. He went on to say that it was obvious that a ‘non-protesting victim’ was consenting. Leaking the video then made the student the actual ‘offender’.

In madrassas, clergymen not only hold power, they can also leverage an ‘in your face’ religiosity. They are trusted and respected by their students and wield power over the wider community. This trust is what provides a perfect basis for an abuser to groom the victim and push and test boundaries over time. In this case, a student was promised to be able to sit exams he’d been banned from for three years if he ‘favoured’ his teacher. The student thus found himself unable to say no. We can surely see the power imbalance.

Through a consistent state narrative, institutional support and under the banner of being an Islamic Republic, Pakistan has banded together people who give us advice, issue instructions, hand out edicts (fatwas). No words can be uttered against them. They cannot be challenged. Their orders cannot be defied. They are protected against lay citizens, mere mortals, because of their titles. They can preach passionate sermons and use violent men to carry out mob justice. The unequal relationship between these men and the rest of the society can be seen in the rallying of crowds and issuance of a fatwa against actors who filmed a music video featuring the Wazir Khan mosque not too long ago.

Sexual exploitation of students at madrassas has been an open secret for decades. The successive governments’ willful negligence in addressing the issue has meant rampant and unchecked abuse; creating generations of traumatised men who may carry the cycle of abuse further. The ease of accessing social media and the activism that follows from it, has allowed at least one incident to come to light. What we should not allow is for the debate to be limited to this incident only. This incident must open the floodgates to expose the decades of abuse, rape and exploitation and the complicity of the authorities. The debate must include finding ways to end the impunity of men associated with religion.

The writer is a barrister whose work focuses on women and    minority rights