The worrying rise in cases of sexual harassment against minors in northern parts of the country has sparked concerns and frustrated many families.
Some of the families from Badakhshan, Takhar, Kundoz, Baghlan, Samangan and Jawzjan provinces say that it has been three years that there has been no response from the government to their complaints against sexual harassment, and their children remain vulnerable.
Findings by Salam Watandar show that the families of the victims have no expectations from the government for justice, and have instead decided to reconcile within the tribe.
According to the families of the victims, the conservative cultural norms combined with extensive corruption in state institutions have made reporting of such incidents difficult.
For this report, SW spoke with many children who have been sexually harassed. The names of the victims have been changed for their safety and privacy.
Mohammad Abbas, a 12 years old boy who lives in Jawzjan province, said that one day he left his home for visiting his relatives in Mazar-e-Sharif, but soon after leaving his home, he met a shopkeeper named Jawad – whom he knew before. Jawad asked Abbas that it was too late to go to Mazar-e-Sharif, and invited the boy to stay with him over night.
So, when the night came, Abbas was resting beside Javad. Suddenly, the shopkeeper asked something from Abbas that made Abbas worry. But, the minor boy was too weak to stop the advancing man, and kept crying the whole dark night.
Jamal Gul is another boy who lost all of his family members in early stage of his life. He lives with his fellows in a mosque in Baghlan province. Jamal Gul said that a local armed commander, Enayat, promised him admission in one of the finest schools.
One day, the commander asked the boy to visit him for the admission. When he reached there, he was informed ‘Bacha Bazi’ ‘boy play’ party has been arranged, and he should wear the dance props and amuse the participants with dance performance. He said this disappointed him, and tarnished his reputation on top of being an orphan.
Among the complaint reports of the sexual harassment victims, SW found about a 13 years old girl who lives in Faizabad, Badakhshan.
While tears were streaming down on her cheeks, Shaima, the mother of this minor girle, Geety, said that one day she found her daughter among dust and blood in the street. Shaima got so frightened, and her body was shaking to see her daughter in that situation. Later on, it was too painful for her to grasp that little Geety is pregnant.
A source at the Ministry of Public Health informed health officials have been threatened so many times not to reveal facts about the files of child victims of sexual harassment. According to this source, out of some 98 incidents of this sort, 43 victims were boys and 55 were boys.
Majority of these cases occurred in northern parts of the country.
Another sources from the Ministry of Interior, informed that most of the accused people in these cases have good ties with Criminal investigation Department of the police, and that is why they are not apprehended for their crimes. Statistics show that only 10-20 % of those accused are trialed in courts.
Sultan Faizi, a district prosecutor in Badakhshan, said that over the past year, in addition to the famous Narges case, 18 other cases of rape have also been investigated, and prosecuted and their perpetrators arrested.
Amruddin Aini, the head of the Jawzjan appellate court, does not rule out ethnic aspects in cases of rape, but says that in the past three years, eight cases of rape have been trialed in the district court.
In a society where large number of people are already psychology disturbed due to poverty, war and other kinds of disasters, the negative impacts of sexual assault on children are frightening.
Psychologist Narges Akhlaqi believes that the future of such a society is even darker if incidents that hurt psychology of its members are not stopped from reoccurring. According to her, the government should, take serious decision in this regard.
ENDS
