Stigmatation of Sexual Abuse Victims in Pakistan

There’re many social issues in Pakistan but some are quite serious issues which are not discuss but they need to be address. I am talking about sexual abuse or sexual violence that is exist in every society, and it is one of the major issues of Pakistan.

Sexual abuse is actually a sexual harassment or when a person forced someone for sexual contact. It may be of any type that you not agree to whether it is inappropriate touching, rape, sexual intercourse that you say no to or it may be verbal or visual too.

Sexual assault is very common in rural areas of Pakistan. There is one of the most prominent case of sexual assault which was happened in Kasur, Pakistan in 2018, when Zainab Ansari 6 six-year-old girl was on her way to practice Quran when she was kidnapped. Then she was later discovered assaulted and murdered. The criminal was recognized as Imran Ali, who confessed to his crime and responsible of seven murdered. Similarly, there are many cases of sexual abuse and the victims are majority women.

One of the critical issues of Pakistan is high rate of illiteracy like in the case of Mukhtaran Bibi, mai’s twelve-year-old brother, Abdul Shakoor was snatched by three baloch mastoi men. He was taken to sugar field where he was raped. At the point when the kid wouldn’t remain quiet about the incident, and then when police came to research shakoor was blamed for engaging in affair with anyone’s sister. The mastoi innate committee (jirga) met independently in regards to a Shakoor’s supposed issue with a girl. Mai was called to the gathering to apologize to the mastoi tribe for her brother’s action. When she arrived, she was assaulted by 4 mastoi men. Any sexual violence case will have a long-term effect on the person especially on women. After being sexual assaulted or attacked, a survivor may build up a negative view point and feel “harmed” or unworthy of superior life.

The most disappointing thing is when our educated or literate people attempt these dirty acts of violence, in 2005 a lady claimed to have been assaulted by four police officers for declining to pay them a payoff. In 2014, three sons of Mian Farooq, a decision party parliamentarian from Faisalabad, were blamed for kidnapped and assaulting of a young girl.

Sexual violence impact on adults or teenagers are very dangerous. They get into a long-term trauma and the effects of sexual abuse on teenagers includes sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety, trust issues and many more. While If the act of violence happened with Childrens, in some cases they avoid to go out from home or they withdraw from school and out-door games.

Sexual assault is a longstanding issue at Islamic schools, madrasas and mosques. In a nation like Pakistan, it is only time to time to talk about it or even recognize it out in the open. Moreover, most of the time, criminals pay to police to not captured them. Recently, on 1 November 2019 another rape case or child abuse case is getting attention on media. In Panu Aqil, Sindh an eleven-year-old girl named Afsana was raped by his religious teacher. According to Afsana, her teacher who is Imam of Masjid assault her more than once, and when father of Afsana went to police station to report, instead of register her request they sent Afsan and his father to hospital for confirmation of abuse.

However, these cases are not getting enough of consideration. It’s an event that must be overcome. This isn’t a little issue that we quit focusing on them some way or another they will vanish.

In Pakistani society the majority of people have a conservative mind set toward such issues, doesn’t matter a man belongs to an educated background or not rape victims always faces the harsh reaction from them. People never understand that it’s not their mistake but the stigma stays with them throughout the life. Victim’s families always consider it’s very shameful and the majority of rape cases are not even reported to police by the families of victim just because of the fear of society.

In this era people's honor are not even safe in graves. There are many examples of such cases like in 2011 in North Nazimabad, Karachi the guy named Muhammad Rizwan was arrested in a charge of a rape of dead woman and after the investigation police discovered that he was a serial rapist and even he had raped 48 female dead bodies so far.