Pakistan International Peace & Human Rights Organization
Nindo Shaher District Badin Sindh Pakistan

The child sexual abuse is rooted in mainstream culture and strengthened by the power imbalance encouraged between children and adults. The problem is reinforced by society�s refusal to acknowledge a child�s rights over his or her body and the right to live free from violence. Children lack a voice in our society, and thus are unable themselves to break the silence surrounding child sexual abuse.

Figures reflecting the number of reported cases of child sexual abuse in a Sahil survey of Pakistani newspapers are noted in Table 9. These data are limited by the reality that police and subsequent newspaper reporting of cases is rare and represents only a fraction of all cases. Details of the cases may be sensationalized or inaccurate (Khan 1994) and boys may be even more reluctant than girls in some social settings to report sexual abuse. A study among 151 adolescents ages 11-19 in a low-income community in Karachi suggests that while the majority felt that touching someone without their consent was wrong, a significant proportion nevertheless felt that the victim was at fault. (Aahung 1999) The study suggests that this attitude contributes to the underreporting of incidences of abuse.

The figures indicate a widespread problem of sexual abuse. In 1997, for example, one child every day was reported either gang raped, raped, murdered after a sexual act, or abducted for purposes of sexual fulfillment. (Sahil n.d.) Females are more vulnerable than males on every count of abuse. Most disturbing is that rape and sodomy are most often reported as the type of abuse for both boys and girls. This may reflect the fact that these crimes are most likely to attract police and press attention. Seventy-three percent of the abusers identified in connection with the cases in Table 9 were acquaintances of the victim. The second largest category of abusers was of strangers (19 percent), followed by relatives, teachers, police, and maulvis.

The most vulnerable age group for female victims was between ages 10-18, with 77 percent of the victims distributed evenly between the age groups 10-15 and 15-18. Adolescent girls were particularly vulnerable to rape, gang rape, and abduction. Boys between ages 15-18 years were most often targets of sexual abuse (58 percent), followed by boys ages 5-10 (32 percent). These two age groups included most of the reported crimes of sodomy and gang rape. The age distribution of victims in these reported crimes indicates that child sexual abuse increases as girls enter adolescence, while boys may become victims at an even earlier age.

War Against Rape, a small organization with offices in Lahore and Karachi, conducted a similar exercise based on newspaper reports of sexual abuse cases of girls in the Punjab between 1991-1993. These findings confirm that adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse. Out of 149 press cases analyzed, 85 percent were of girls between ages 10-20. Rape and gang rape were again the most commonly reported types of sexual abuse. Most of the girls came from lower or lower-middle income groups, which may simply indicate that girls from higher socioeconomic groups either do not report cases as often or else manage to avoid press coverage of cases. Since the total number of child sexual abuse cases registered with the Punjab police in this time period was 4,200, an analysis of these cases would probably reveal with more accuracy the class distribution of victims.

The Punjab study provides valuable insight into how sexual abuse occurs. For example, in half of the cases where the time frame of abuse could be determined, cases were evenly distributed in the ranges of 24 hours, and extended over periods of 2 to 29 days and from one month to one year. There were even six cases of reported abuse lasting over one year. In 89 percent of the cases, abduction/attempted abduction, and physical abuse also accompanied sexual abuse. The abuser was most often identified as an acquaintance; only 33 abusers (22 percent) were confirmed as arrested.

Findings from a small Karachi survey of medical-legal incidents recorded at the Police Surgeon General�s Office (January-August, 1998) confirm again that adolescents are at high risk for rape and sexual assault. Out of 95 cases of reported rape, gang rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, rape and abduction, and incest, the victims were ages 12-18 in 43 cases, and 19-40 in 41 cases. (WAR 1998)

We already know that adolescent female mobility is particularly restricted as compared to the mobility of older women, and that research (Khan 1998) has shown that fears of sexual violation underpin these restrictions. The figures on sexual abuse and rape suggest that these fears are not baseless, but that the perception of the outside world as a violent place, for young girls in particular, is correct to some extent. Nonetheless, the unhealthy and morbid fear of assault that pervades social norms limiting girls� movement (Khan 1998) is still likely to be exaggerated and manipulated. For example, scant attention is paid to acknowledging the problem of incest, which takes places within the home (discussed below). Further, sexual assault and abuse also affects boys; however, their mobility is not restricted as a result and they do not have a sense of constant threat pervading their perception of the outside world. It seems likely that the threat of sexual assault serves most to restrict the movement of girls rather than boys, and in so doing is used to limit their growth and participation in society.

Incest, defined as a form of child sexual abuse where the abuser is a close relative of the child by blood or by law, is arguably the most taboo of the many forms of sexual exploitation of the young. Out of the cases Sahil monitored in 1997, 6 percent involve incest; and this does not reflect the true extent of the practice since most such cases are unlikely to be reported. In the WAR study cited above, 5 percent of the 149 cases analyzed involve incest committed by step-fathers and uncles, but the author warns that incest rarely makes it to the press although the problem is more common than is widely believed.

Another Islamabad-based project to tackle child sexual abuse, Aangan, analyzed a randomly selected pool of 100 confidential letters it had received from victims/survivors of child sexual abuse. Forty-seven of them were incest cases. (Aangan 1998) (Table 10) This figure is dramatically higher than the number of incest cases monitored in press reports, possibly because the writers are selfselected and anonymous and know that their information will be shared in a safe environment.

Aangan found that all of the abusers identified in the study had been victims of child sexual abuse themselves. Abuse may not only begin at a young average age (6�8 years) but it is also known to last for years, particularly because the abuser is usually a close relative. Findings suggest that girls are more likely to be victims than boys, and that abusers are more likely to be male than female. Boys are more likely to become victims in their early adolescence while girls may become victims early. The most common reported psychological effects suffered by the victims were negative self-esteem and problems in relationships, followed by sexual difficulties, fear of marriage, and others. Finally, incest is not confined to one social class, but has been reported across classes in Pakistan.

There is almost no research on child pornography and the exposure of children to pornographic material in Pakistan. However in the North West Frontier Province it was reported that the showing of pornographic movies to children was on the rise (NGO Coalition on Child Rights 1998) and the practice is linked to the sexual abuse of young boys in particular and subsequent exploitation of them for prostitution. (Sahil 1998) Further, children who are victims of sexual abuse are known to be blackmailed by their abusers who threaten that they will, or have, publicized photographs of the abusive acts. (Khan 1994; Fayyazuddin et al. 1998)