EDITORIAL: The shameful incident from Chakwal – where teachers at a seminary were found sexually abusing and torturing students for weeks – is just one more disgusting, horrifying episode that cries out for the state to finally take this bull by the horns.

For, year after year we hear shocking stories of sexual abuse and rape at religious institutions, but there is never any effective action and after some noise by human rights groups and concerned parents, it’s back to business as usual.

One hoped that the terrible tale from 2021, when one madressah student was forced to video-tape his own abuse at the hands of a very senior cleric to prove his case, would be the game changer.

Yet here we are, and only in the first half of this year close to two-and-a-half thousand cases of child abuse were reported. This is unforgivable. The government must treat the Chakwal case as a compelling instance to clean the rot from seminaries across the country.

It’s even more shameful that nobody ever took the trouble to investigate why this ugly trend is so strong in religious seminaries. Not that all of them are alike, but there’s still enough noise as well as evidence to make a strong case for most madressahs to be hunting grounds for deranged predators. And it is already pretty easy to understand that this trend persists because it is never checked.

One reason is the clout that such institutions enjoy. Most newspaper editors are aware of the threatening phone calls their reporters receive when they follow such stories, as if they are disturbing the work of religious scholars and religion itself.

They use the threat of religious persecution, even blasphemy, against anybody investigating abusive behaviour in their surroundings, and that is often strong enough a deterrent to make most people back down.

Another is that victims are often apprehensive about stepping forward for fear of being socially stigmatised. Even in the Chakwal case, a number of parents refused medical examinations of their children. It is no doubt very painful for them to accept such bitter truths, but by shying away from legal course they only embolden the abusers and exploiters of their own children.

That is why it is important for the state itself to take the lead and pursue this matter right to the end. It has clearly failed to address it properly right from the start.

Seminaries attract the largest number of students in the country because of their affordability. And, given this trend of rampant sexual abuse, that means a big majority of this country’s children are vulnerable to sexual torture and exploitation at all times.

Granted, it’s not fair to see all institutions with suspicion. But the situation has degenerated to such an extent, because the state has allowed it to, that parents and rights outfits will continue to worry till there is a very transparent investigation and fitting punishments for all that are guilty.

It’s shocking that institutions that are meant to impart religious education to children, teach them our religion and educate them in the scripture, have become dens of sex abuse and rape.

Such children are scarred for life, both physically and psychologically. And it is unacceptable that the government has never bothered to even properly investigate this ugly trend, much less put an end to it.

Hopefully, relevant authorities realise that the time for inaction is over. They must act with full force and act now, without any ifs or buts.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023