Akmal* remembers how he came home feeling sick with fear and disgust, one late evening. He was 10 years old at the time, and had gone to the madressah for his Quran class. After class, his ‘Qari Sahib’ had asked him to lend a hand with some work, and so he stayed back.

Little did he expect what then transpired. As soon as the other students had gone home, and Akmal was helping clean up, he felt something behind him. The qari, having crept up a little too close to Akmal, was telling him how to organise some papers. The qari was looking and behaving completely differently than when he had been in class and, once or twice, he purposely brushed himself so near the boy, that Akmal clearly felt the cleric’s genitals rub against his own.

“I was a little boy, and I did not want to believe that it was something bad,” says Akmal, now 23 years old. “First, I felt like I had made a big mistake — a teacher of religion would never do anything wrong. He was an expert on what is good and bad. But when I felt him too close, I made an excuse and rushed out of the classroom. I was lucky he didn’t try grabbing me. Otherwise, I do not know what would have happened.”

For Akmal it was the change in the cleric that caused him to feel so unsettled all of a sudden.

“When I saw his face, it had changed,” he recalls. “Now that I think about it, it seems that his eyes had this look of greediness in them. His whole personality seemed to have changed. He did not look like the teacher I knew.”

The 10-year-old did not inform his parents about what had happened that evening at the madressah. But he did make up some excuse so that his parents enrolled him in a different madressah. Thankfully, he did not experience such an incident again. But, from then on, Akmal was always wary.

Sexual abuse of children in madressahs is not a new phenomenon. But turning a blind eye to it is a sin we keep committing

Despite more and more cases cropping up about molestation of minors taking place in madressahs — the one place that parents thought would be safe — many people still have no inkling about the reality of the situation. Reports about both sexual and corporal abuse of children have been leaked to the media from time to time. Such reports create shock among the public, yet it seems there is still not enough evidence to dissuade parents from sending their children to madressahs or to call for a more institutionalised accountability of them.

The leaked video of ‘Mufti’ Azizur Rehman, who was recorded by the student he was sexually abusing and who wanted finally to present proof of his own exploitation, is only the latest, and most graphic, evidence that the silence around what goes on in many madressahs is criminal.

Madressahs occupy a unique position in Pakistan. Unlike most schools in the country, they often have boarders, young boys who usually come from extremely poor families and faraway towns and villages, and thus at the mercy of the madressahs’ clerical administrations and teachers. The madressah where Azizur Rehman was a teacher is the Jamia Manzoor Al-Islamia, home to more than 500 children between the ages of eight and 25.

MAINSTREAMING MADRESSAHS

According to Mamtaz Gohar of Sahil — a non-profit organisation working for child protection, especially against child sexual abuse — there are possibly around 3.5 million children currently studying in madressahs across Pakistan. Two years ago, there was talk of mainstreaming religious schools, when the military had announced that over 30,000 madressahs would be brought under state control in order to curb hate speech and delink militancy from madressahs. Yet there are still thousands of unregistered madressahs that are open.

Critics of the madressah system often say that madressahs act as a hotbed of militant outfits. But the issue of sexual abuse of children may be a much bigger issue.

“We do not even know how much resistance there is among the madressahs in being regularised,” says Gohar. “Lekin buss bohot ho gaya! [But enough is enough!]. Madressahs should now be mainstreamed and, if the single national curriculum [SNC] is being imposed in all schools, it should be applied to the Wafaqul Madaris [the largest federation for seminaries and madressahs] governing board for as well. But are they going to follow it?” he questions.

There’s a reason Gohar feels the mainstreaming of madressahs is an important issue beyond the usual reasons presented. He says that if madressahs are mainstreamed, a revision of their syllabus will be required. In that situation, it will not be the kind of system where one aalim [scholar] will be teaching everything and everyone. There will have to be different teachers. Instead of a single cleric being responsible for the students’ education (centred around the recitation of the Quran, and other Islamic studies), if the SNC or any other policy to reform madressahs is implemented, the power of the aalim will be gone.

“In the present system, there is one maulvi [cleric] who is the ‘king’ of the madressah,” says Gohar. “He may do as he wants. Even if there is child abuse, nothing leaks out. This incident where Azizur Rehman was taped and finally arrested was a one-off situation. Unless something very grievous surfaces in the community, such as a murder because of corporal punishment, no one really dares to question the cleric.”

Usually when they are involved in something so criminal, they are protected, or they flee, he says.

The problem of sexual abuse in madressahs has always existed. It is not a new phenomenon. But because even asking questions about sex is considered a sin in Pakistan, where biological terms for genitals are taboo, it is not surprising that, when sexual abuse occurs, the victim is easily cowed into silence. Shame, disgust and even self-loathing are all that he or she is left feeling.

Following the case of 70-year-old Azizur Rehman — that was captured in grimy detail on video and became viral because of social media — several other videos incriminating clerics in the act of sexual assault have come forward. Some of them are older, but watching them it can be plain to see how prevalent sexual abuse is.

MORE CASES EMERGE

Following the case of 70-year-old Azizur Rehman — that was captured in grimy detail on video and became viral because of social media — several other videos incriminating clerics in the act of sexual assault have come forward. Some of them are older, but watching them it can be plain to see how prevalent sexual abuse is.

One such video making the rounds is that of ‘Allama’ Mazhar Hussain Najfi, the principal of Madressah Imam-ul-Asr. According to a representative of the Chiniot police, however, the incident took place in March 2021, under the jurisdiction of the Muhammadwala police station. The representative said that “the case has been registered and due process has been followed.”

On Twitter, a few journalists have also been highlighting news of child abuse incidents, while some are regularly following up on child abuse in seminaries.

“The mullahs in these madressahs have so much influence, they often even pay off the area SHO to not intervene in ‘madressah matters’,” says Gohar. “It is no surprise that many times children have even been found chained inside seminaries.”

Sahil’s research reveals that, in the year 2020, there was a four percent increase in cases of child abuse as compared to 2019. The data shows that more than eight children were abused daily during 2020.

Analysis of the data reveals that out of the total reported cases in 2020, 985 cases were of sodomy, 787 cases were of rape, 89 cases were of pornography and child sexual abuse, and 80 cases were reported of murder after child sexual abuse. There were 345 cases of missing children as well.

But these figures are based on cases reported in the media. There are probably hundreds of other cases that were never reported at all, out of shame or other reasons. It is also easy to scare children by blackmailing them into silence, especially since clerics wield immense religious power.

POVERTY

Shahida is a 30-year-old domestic worker who has to clean three homes before she can make enough to make ends meet. With a disabled husband, who cannot find steady work, and four children, she was left with no decision other than to let the madressah keep her two boys, both aged between 10 and 12. They will probably grow up to work for the same seminary, even if they find other jobs. But for now, Shahida does not need to worry about how her two boys are fed, and whether they have a place to sleep.

“The place is good, my brother visited it to see it for himself,” she says. Thankfully, she has never heard of any news of abuse emerging from the place. But then how many parents believe the news? Even if there is abuse, they turn a blind eye to it or they live in a state of denial, says sociologist Erum Hafeez.

“It is not easy for us to even begin to imagine the level of poverty that affects such families,” Hafeez says. “They are at the mercy of madressahs, which — to be honest — tend to play a more powerful role than any local schools. There are beds and food, and a proper ‘Islamic upbringing’ — what else would these parents want for their child?”

There is the question of the quality of education — especially practical education — being given to these children, so they could live better lives. But what about the increasing vulnerability that children face behind the walls of the madressah? For whatever happens inside these schools, stays inside the schools. One recommendation is that there must be CCTVs installed in all madressahs, to be controlled by the relevant authorities.

But there is also no mechanism to address abuse. If parents themselves do not recognise abuse, or the child is not aware that he or she has been the victim of a sex crime, there is no way that complaints will be registered. Hence, there will not be any convictions.

“In many of the madressahs, there is so much bacha bazi [sexual abuse of children] — the maulvi tends to keep one or two children especially for himself,” says Gohar. “No one wants to say anything because the clerics can say or do anything to the complainant — and even to the police. Otherwise, there is no reason why so many people remain silent when it comes to madressahs, but not when it comes to university teachers, for instance.”

Why is there so much sexual frustration in these men, who propagate religion, and tell people to contain their sexual appetite? “We ourselves cannot understand what it is — it is a very worrying situation, which needs to be understood,” replies Gohar. “It is good these things are coming forward, though, especially because of smartphones and social media. It is the educated people who must take things forward now.”

Meanwhile, civil society has some observations, too.

“It is our fault,” says a group of parents in an online statement. “We must tell our children how to safeguard themselves. They should know about their private parts and good and bad touch — and, most importantly, to make a noise about it and never keep it a secret if something does happen.”

“The madressah incident should not be restricted to just the case of one individual,” says one Twitter user, referring to Azizur Rehman’s arrest. “All madressahs must be closely scrutinised from now on, [and] all children interviewed about any abuse they may be facing.”

**Name changed to protect the individual’s privacy*

The writer is a journalist who reports on various issues from human rights to society and art. She tweets @xarijalil

Published in Dawn, EOS, July 4th, 2021