Soul Sisters Pakistan founder Kanwal Ahmed hosts the talk show titled Conversations with Kanwal (CWK). The first episode of season 3 shed light on traumatic experience of two sexual abuse survivors as children.
As per report by NGO Sahil, the child sexual assault incidents increased by 14% during first six months of 2020 as compared to the same time in 2019.
The episode started with Superintendent of police, Amna Baig saying that “When there is an attempt made on your child, you directly come to the police to report the incident without worrying about the absence of evidence. Lawfully, any activity a child reports as being touched somewhere is an act of child molestation”.
“I believe as parents, it’s your responsibility to protect kids other than that of your own so the sexual abuser is at least listed as an ‘abuser’,” she added.
Sahar, who is a child sexual abuse survivor, said: “He was visiting from Hyderabad, stayed at our place for a few hours. It was my father’s cousin who came along with his mother while mine was busy entertaining them. I was seven and my brother was four. He was in his early 30s, significantly older than us. We live in a two-bedroom apartment so in that moment he said he was getting bored.”
“My mother has always been very vigilant but that day, since it was family, she asked me and my brother to assist him in the other room where he can fetch himself a book to read. It was there when he suggested we shall play a game where we must pick a paper chit with body parts scribbled across it and whoever gets whichever must kiss it,” she continued.
“We walked out of the room soon enough to hear he was bored again so my mother instructed us to let him use our computer, which was in the same room. While he sat on the desktop chair, I was asked to sit on his lap. I could feel my pants unzip in that moment and somebody touching me. Things escalated when he asked my brother to bring water. Today, I have two daughters of my own and I can only imagine the innocence and how vulnerable a child can be at this age,” she added.
One more survivor named Najda told, “I have always been a great student but there was only one subject I could not ace: Islamiat. I did well in theory but never well enough in recitation. For that part, my mother decided to enroll me in a nearby facility. At some point, there was construction going around the house and being a child, I was curious to see what was happening.”
She continued, “While I was jumping to catch a glimpse, my teacher’s husband came and picked me up as I wished to see but he took the advantage and started to feel me in between my legs.”
Both sexual abuse survivors want our society to openly discuss such incidents so that there is more awareness. Najda also said that the parents should admit that such things happens other than teaching kids about bad and good touch.
Watch the full episode below:
