After BBC's India's Daughter, now i guess they will make Pakistan's Son :-)

[phoenixdesi]

Re: After BBC’s India’s Daughter, now i guess they will make Pakistan’s Son

@Balthier

Its mostly in my own village and a couple of neighbouring villages. At the moment I haven’t mustered the courage to speak openly about it elsewhere, because even mentioning sexuality in rural areas, can inflame people quite a lot.

My brother (whos also part of the cause) and I have used these approaches,

1. Speak to near and distant relatives about them being observant on who their children spend time with. And have their children notify the parents, if they are subject to inappropriate behaviour, by adults or older boys. Also tell them to educate their children on what constitutes as inappropriate behaviour.

2. If one of us notice older boys (adolescents and even teens) spending considerable amount of time with kids who are much younger than them, we will invite fathers of the younger ones to our home and have a talk with them. It might be on general exploitation, but if I know the fathers well, I don’t refrain from mentioning the sexual part. Obviously said boys are at times related, so this path must be tread lightly. But I know of quite a few cases where older boys sexually exploited younger relatives, to think that it can not occur.

Obviously its not implied that their child is being molested/exploited, but they are just notified that it can occur especially when their child is spending considerable time with someone much older, so they need to monitor the situation, and its best if the child plays with children in his own age group.

There is a doctor in the area, whos help we have enlisted, so his wife (also a doctor) can inform mothers as well. In return the doctors get to rent office space for free.

3. There is a local imam, who is an old friend of our father. He lived abroad for a while, but has now moved back and is Imam at one of the mosques in the village. We want to arrange religious gatherings at our place, where he can lead the gatherings and (also) speak on molestation of younger boys, sometimes on a general note and sometimes explicitly, depending on the people present. He is at the moment reluctant, and I can’t really blame him, but we are still trying to persuade him.

I think an authority figure attacking the issue from an Islamic perspective can yield good results.

4. We also want to print leaflets for kids (and parents) which notifies them on what can constitute as inappropriate behaviour, and how they should notify parents if any such thing occurs. Currently working with a a couple of local teachers on how to phrase the wording in the leaflets, so it gets the message across without being offensive.

Approach 3 and 4 are huge steps, and can inflame people, so we are aware there can be repercussions.

this is amazing and jazak allah for doing it. you are doing great. you should be mentioned in proud Pakistanis thread.