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Eradicating Incest through Education


Taboo is a social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing. An incest taboo is any cultural rule or norm that prohibits sexual relations between closely related persons. All human cultures have norms that exclude certain close relatives from the categories of persons who are suitable or permissible sexual or marriage partners, and which are taboo. 



The sexual relations between related persons which are subject to the taboo are called incestuous relationships. Around the globe, incest is seen as an ethical issue, it is really sad to observe that some families in the word accepts incest as a normal behaviour and gives the reason of their sexual inclination towards their family member as a matter of attraction. Whereas the real picture may define incest as “rape”. In the context of Pakistan there are numerous cases where a child has become a victum of abuse by their own close family members. A daughter been sexually abused by her father, brother, cousin, paternal uncles and so on. 

Ironically, unlike ordinary sexual abuse, incest rape is seldom or never reported. Family members and caregivers do not want to hear the complaint, or even if they proceed, they are threatened by the perpetrator. If it remains unsaid and the child is young, they may grow up believing the relationship is normal. Such children have poor social interaction (Jalali, 2014).

 Sexual abuse has many forms, and an abuser can be anyone. Mostly abusers are from victim’s circle of acquaintances. In most cases of child sexual assaults, the victim happens to be a minor as young as five or six years old and in some cases even younger. The abusers range from blood relations to those the victim is familiar with, such as neighbours, a teacher, or a relative.

A report by Pakistani NGO, Sahil, reports that out of the total 2,252 cases of child sexual abuse reported all over Pakistan in 2011, there were 138 cases of incest. Of these, 24 cases were those where the perpetrator was an immediate relation of the survivor (including the father or bother), whereas 114 cases were those committed by ‘relatives’ (including cousins, uncles and others) Sahil’s statistics show that from the 2,303 reported cases of child sexual abuse in 2011, 3,028 (63%) of the perpetrators were acquaintances (i.e., known to the child) while 1,374 (28%) were strangers. It further asserts that 444 of the abusers were from within the child’s family. (Rasheed & Zaman, 2012) 

Incest cases rejected In Pakistan most incest cases are rejected for the judge calls the act impossible, especially if a father is involved. Many courts have not accepted that a child can tolerate prolonged abuse and not report it. But in reality it can take up to a year for a child to do so. Also in courts the appeal procedure tends to be extremely traumatic labeling the mother of the child being immoral and a liar. Sometimes this pans out well for the accused and often complainants want out of court settlements to avoid slander. 

Education as a means of Eradicating Incest Incest cases can be minimized if a special curriculum can be incorporated in our routine syllabus at schools. It is so unfortunate to point our Pakistani society where a child is unable to watch a condom advertisement sitting with his entire family to accept these topics sexual awareness programs as necessary part of their daily life. However a good moral support should primarily come from home first and then school but never the less school child abuse and incest can be minimized if a child care curriculum is incorporated as an integral formation of a child. One such model of child care is given by child psychologist, Lauren (Book, 2014) who has developed children’s sexual abuse curriculum called “Prevention Curriculum” that teaches elementary-age children the tools to prevent abuse and report it. 

The curriculum is a five-day, hour-long session that brings Lauren and Tara Zuckerman, a child psychologist, into school classrooms. The children receive one-on-one attention with the facilitators who send the children home with homework for themselves and their parents. The core topics covered in the curriculum are: safety awareness, respect for yourself and others, self esteem development, body boundaries, listening to your guidance voice, assessing help, its OK to tell secrets.  
Apart from this prevention curriculum many other types of curriculum are also designed for child care by Lauren which can be easily adopted by schools and colleges in Pakistan under the guidance of child psychologist:
1. Safer, Smarter Kids: Abuse prevention education curriculum for kindergarteners
2. Youth Serving Organizations: Training curriculum for youth serving organizations to ensure they don’t miss the signs of sexual abuse
3. Developmental Disabilities: Prevention curriculum for children with developmental disabilities 

Sexual violence against women and children in Pakistan is an insidious problem that has reached epidemic proportion in recent years. Within the ambit of sexual violence fall not just the most obvious and aggravated forms such gang-rape, rape and sexual assault, but also the less recognized forms such as forced marriages, forced abortions, under-age marriages, forced prostitution and trafficking for commercial sex trade, among others (Rasheed & Zaman, 2012). 

 Numerous NGO’s in Pakistan are active and playing their part in providing security by the means of awareness programs and justice by reporting their complaints and hearing their say. UNICEF works with the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education, Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Provincial Social Welfare Departments, International and national NGOs and other UN agencies to protect children from abuse, exploitation, violence, discrimination and support the establishment of a system of juvenile justice. 

 The society needs awareness, it is better to be educated rather than just become mere victims of psychological disturbed abusers around us. Let’s educate each other while we can and use education as a tool that does not fade or decay because prevention is always better than cure.  

Reference

Asjad, N. (2004, November 18). Pakistan's taboo on sex abuse. Retrieved from http://www.shiachat.com/forum/topic/44522-pakistans-taboo-on-sex-abuse/ Book, L. (2014, December 3). Prevention Curriculum. Retrieved from http://laurenskids.org/about/prevention-curriculum/ Jalali, X. (2014, September 21). Incest in Pakistan: When a child is threatened by the social circle. Retrieved from http://www.pakistanaffairs.pk/threads/73528-INCEST-in-Pakistan Rasheed, S., & Zaman, S. (2012). Incest in Pakistan: A legal and socio cultural analysis. Karachi: WAR.
Gohar I Nayab

Gohar I Nayab

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