I write this about Pakistan today because that is where I grew up, and seeing these events unfold in front of my very own eyes makes my heart ache. According to Pakistan Today (2020), there were 5,240 cases of sexual violence against children under the age of 18 in 2019 in Pakistan. That’s five thousand, two hundred and forty lives ruined, and those numbers reflect only the official government statistics. We don’t even know the true number of unreported cases.
Some people say victims get abused because “they were asking for it,” but someone explain to me– how can a five-year-old or a ten-year-old be asking for it? These innocent souls are preyed upon every day in this society, and the law mostly turns a blind eye towards them. Experiencing sexual violence is traumatic for everyone but, even worse for children because they don’t even fully understand the concept. Some try to forget it ever happened, some spiral into depression or anxiety and, worst of all, some think what happened to them was normal.
Children have their whole lives ahead of them, how are they supposed to prosper after suffering from something this vile? The psychological effects of sexual violence are everlasting and not easy to overcome. Kids will lose any self-esteem or sense of security they had, but, that is if they come out alive. Reports of the rape and murder of children are even more horrific. As if what the kids go through wasn’t horrific enough, their parents have to endure the loss of a child. Thinking of all these incidents only leave one question in my mind: How?
How can someone want to hurt a little child who hasn’t wronged anyone? How can anyone think to rob a household of its source of joy? How can you hear a kid pleading and not have an ounce of empathy in your heart? Has society created a lack of empathy and morals? That is the only possible explanation my mind can come up with to understand how a person can commit such a heinous act; not knowing what is right and what is wrong. Why else would you abuse a child as they beg and plead for you to stop?
Reading about these tiny pure souls being violated like this every day makes me lose hope in humanity. There is only so much the law can do, as long as there is no change at the micro-level nothing can be done. It’s as if our society is a rose and every day its petals are plucked until there is no beauty left.
