mahtabbashir@gmail.com
0333 53 63 248
ISLAMABAD
Once we were among the top ranked country watching Porn Videos/ Clips, now making headway suffering with Paedophilia. Our society is struggling to protect children, older people, transgender and disabled. This is not just a crisis of care. This is a crisis of human values. But from where and how we can start recognizing it before we will go for coping it?
The horror of Pedophilia (alternatively spelt Paedophilia) is a world-wide phenomenon. Unfortunately, however, this illicit practice in Pakistan, has become ‘business as usual’ from classrooms to factories, from public sector organizations to private sector offices, from hospitals to guest houses and from Madrassahs to hostels, to say the least.
The two separate incidents of molestation of an adult and raping of a young boy surfaced in Lahore and Islamabad recently. The perpetrators of both incidents belong to an educated segment of society. Now, what about that big question mark of “awareness’- when the receiver and the giver(s)- are adults and well-informed.
In first incident, a cleric in a madressah (in Lahore) sexually assaults one of his students. The second incident of molesting a University boy takes place in the hostel of another University of the Federal Capital.
The problem exists even in the welfare states. It is not that every cleric is rapist or only madressahs are being targetted. The Roman Catholic clergy worldwide has been accused the world over for molesting little boys. Then too every effort was made to keep the problem hidden.
It did not work. Similarly, attempts at concealment will not work. Not only are such assaults inhuman, but they are also against the precepts of Islam.
Researchers and psychologists believe paedophiles are most likely to offend when their self-esteem is low and their stress levels are high.
The best treatments we have available for pedophiles help them develop the skills they need to live a healthy, offense-free life and, in some cases, to block their sex drives (if they feel it would help them). We have not yet found a way to convert pedophiles into non-pedophiles that are any more effective than the many failed attempts to convert gay men and lesbians into heterosexuals.
While it is fundamentally important to condemn and shame the crime, we cannot simply stop there. Even more important is the need to end the vicious cycle that feeds on the vulnerability of students; only to breed future abusers. But again- how? We are still a long, long way from having even a roadmap for this arduous journey.
