Zainab Ansari is the name of a 7 year old Pakistani girl who lived in the Kasur district of Punjab. As she was on her way to Quran recital classes she was abducted, raped and brutally murdered. Once the killer was done with her, her body was disposed of amongst a rubbish heap next to a garbage can.
As the story was released, I sat in a daze of so many thoughts and feelings running through me. Anger, disgust, grief, horror and heartbreak. I was completely torn as social media was flooded with support alongside the hashtag #JusticeForZainab. Solidarity came through via Pakistani politicians and celebrities alike.
Imran Khan, head of the PTI party in Pakistan tweeted a video message condemning the crime and urged for action in finding the killer. I ask myself how are such heinous crimes so prevalent in a country like Pakistan? Why has our judicial system failed Zainab and many before her? Why are individuals so caught up in political point scoring, rather than dealing with the issue at hand? Zainab is now just another number, the eighth girl to have been killed in the past year in the Kasur region.
Kasur: Hub of child sexual abuse scandals since 2006
When Zainab was murdered, protests began in the streets of Kasur. Police officials came under fire for shooting men amongst the marches. I saw tweets on my timeline, asking why are people rioting? As if a rape of a young girl shouldn't be enough to cause anger, the reason being however is people are fed up of the inaction due to Kasur's sordid history of a paedophile ring extorting relatives of children sexually abused, since 2006.
Villagers of the district spoke out at the time. It had emerged that there is a dominant family who have blackmailed children into performing sexual acts, which they recorded and sold on to pornography sites.
In a fact finding report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan it was found the crimes were concealed as the perpetrators threatened families to release videos of their children being raped and performing sexual acts under force. They were then forced to pay up or else the videos would be released.
More than 300 children from 2006 through to 2015 were involved in this disgusting and vile crime. Hundreds upon hundreds of video clips circulated at the time, members of the public came forward to report incidents and yet every single child was failed by a corrupt and unjust system. The bureaucracies turned the other eye and colluded with the known criminals to protect their identities and of course, for money.
2016 finally saw two suspects sentenced to life imprisonment over their role in the pedophilia ring of Village Hussain KhanWala, Kasur.
2017
In the last six months, seven other girls have been sexually assaulted in the Punjab region. An investigation is now underway to see if they are all connected.
I feel disheartened at how Pakistan has failed their children. A country where I too have family, and little cousins the same age as Zainab. A country rife with corruption, where parties are too busy hurling accusations at each other in order to get ahead in the political race.
Zainab's parents were performing Umrah (a religious pilgrimage) whilst this happened to her. She was living with her aunt, and thought she was safe walking a short minute to her religious classes. Which she should have been.
The ONLY person to be blamed for this, is the vile creature who committed the crime. No one else. It is a sorry state of affairs when women still find a way to blame anyone else other than the rapist. Which is what I found in some of the comments section when reports were released about Zainab. My heart breaks for her family, and for every other vulnerable child out there who was taken advantage of.
S.K.
Shareen K
