Child Sex Abuse in Kashmir - Dark Figure of Crime

 A large number of cases still go unreported even if the parents, guardian or teacher is aware that a child sex abuse incident has taken place 

Hakim Yasir Abbas

Child Sex Abuse [CSA] at home, in the neighbourhood, at a relative’s place or in an institution (educational or otherwise) is a serious problem in Kashmir.

Other than the lack of effective socio-legal and psychological infrastructure to prevent, protect and punish CSA, even more serious issue about CSA in Kashmir is the perpetual silence and the continuous state of denial associated with the same.

A dialogue (public or private) on CSA in Kashmir is always considered an “itchy or uncomfortable” experience. Sameena Mohiddin’s research on CSA in Kashmir provides preliminary evidence to highlight the need for the Kashmiri society to acknowledge the problem because adopting silence on the same is nothing short of facilitating grave injustice.

An unfortunate result of this silence is that there is very little data to highlight the extent of the problem. However, the absence of evidence cannot be taken as an acknowledgment that the problem does not exist. Child Sex Abuse is one of the highest contributors of what is called the ‘dark figure of crime’.

The dark (or hidden) figure of crime is a term employed by criminologists and sociologists to describe the amount of unreported or undiscovered crime.  This problem can be dealt only when we create spaces to talk about child sex abuse.

However, public discourse (and even private conversations) on child sex abuse in Kashmir are considered a taboo and reinforcing these taboos have kept the topic of child sex abuse away from public discussion.

CSA is an epidemic which has serious physical and psychological short-term and long-term consequences. Robert Freeman Longo, the author of Sexual Abuse in America: The Epidemic of the 21st Century observes that child sex abuse is 

“a social issue, 

a religious issue, 

an economic issue, 

an emotional issue, 

a political issue, 

a spiritual issue, 

a health issue, 

an educational issue, 

a racial issue, 

a gender issue, 

and more.”

Research conducted over the past decade indicates that a wide range of psychological and interpersonal problems are more prevalent among those who have been sexually abused than among individuals with no such experiences.

There is extensive literature on child sex abuse which co-relates childhood sexual abuse with higher levels of depression, guilt, shame, self-blame, eating disorders, somatic concerns, anxiety, dissociative patterns, repression, denial, sexual problems, and relationship problems.

The Indian parliament enacted the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 [POCSO] to deal with the issue of child sex abuse in India. Unfortunately, the same was not extended to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. And the state government itself has failed to take any initiative in this regard.

The National Crime Records Bureau [NCRB] data for 2015 highlights the problem of child sex abuse in states other than the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Since POCSO is not operational in the State of J&K, NCRB does not collect any data from Kashmir.

However, CSA being a global phenomenon, it would be intellectually impotent to assume that it does not exist in Kashmir.

According to the NCRB data for 2015, a total of 8800 cases were reported under the POCSO Act. This data is related to the offences of penetrative sexual assault and aggravated penetrative sexual assault (ie rape) as provided in section 4 and 6 of the POCSO Act, 2012.

In 8341 of these 8800 cases the offenders were known to the victim. And out of these 8341 cases, around 138 cases were incest cases (those cases in which the offender is blood relative like grandfather, father, brother, son etc.), 210 cases involved close family member other than incest cases and 581 involved family members other than those who fell in the first two category. 3149 cases involved offenders who were neighbours.

Moreover, as far as the victims are concerned, 306 were below the age of 06 years, 1008 were between 06 and 12, 3405 between 12 and 16 and 4114 between 16 and 18.

Children are developmentally unprepared to know how to explain sex, let alone sexual violence or abuse. In most of the cases, the reason why the victims of child sex abuse do not talk is because they do not even know that what is happening to them is illegal or immoral or bad for them.

In a large number of cases, the trust-relationship shared by the victim and the offender convinces the victim to look at incidents of abuse in a positive light, and to consider the same as something beneficial for them.

Therefore, it would be catastrophically wrong on part of the parents, or guardian or the teachers to assume that just because the children don’t talk about it, the problem does not exist.

Moreover, a large number of cases still go unreported even if the parents or the guardian or the teacher is aware that a child sex abuse incident has taken place. This is done to protect the honour and reputation of the family.

Also, cases of child sex abuse in the institutions like schools and orphanages rarely come to light because these institutions also have to protect their reputation. Who would want to associate with an institution which has a history of child sex abuse?

Jammu and Kashmir needs a law on the lines similar to POCSO. However, the state has an opportunity to create a better version of the same because while POCSO is a comprehensive law, it still has some loopholes.

For example, the definition of child only considers the biological age of the victim and not his mental age. Therefore, a person after attaining the age of 18 years will not be covered by this law even if such person continues to remain a child mentally.

And the Supreme Court of India also decided in the case of Ms. Era v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi said on 21st July 2017 that they cannot read the word “mental” into the meaning of the term child as provided in section 2(1) (d) of the POCSO Act, 2012.

While the legislation says that a Juvenile Justice Unit shall be responsible for dealing with child sex abuse cases, there is no reference to the kind of training that this unit requires in order to deal with the same. The legislation does not provide for psychological needs of a CSA victim. There is a need to make such legislation victim oriented.

Moreover, there is also a need to collect data in order to understand the extent of the problem and to provide for a data oriented solutions. There is also a need to develop an educational policy that will make CSA awareness mandatory in schools.

Such awareness has to involve all the interested parties, particularly the parents. The policy should also make it mandatory for the schools to employ full-time psychologist/psychiatrists to deal with the issue of child sex abuse. 

Kashmir needs a proper policy and legislation oriented approach to CSA, and it needs it now.

Author is an Assistant Professor at School of Law, University of Kashmir.

Lebanese Campaign Urges Abolishment of Law that Protects Rapists Who Marry Victims

Turkey just backed down from adopting such a law as this, but it has been in place in Lebanon for some time. 

   A campaign poster by Abaad highlighting the negative effects Article 522 has on Lebanese women.
   Published: 13:35 December 2, 2016 Gulf News

Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: Article 522 of the Lebanese Penal Code shields rapists from prosecution on the condition that they marry their victim, a phenomenon that is still practised in the country, especially among conservative families whose chief aim is to preserve the family’s so-called “honour.”

Activists say that such ‘protection’ is, more often than not, a second trauma for victims — something that parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee met to discuss a few days ago.

Deputy Élie Keyrouz, a Lebanese Forces MP, proposed to abolish the article entirely, but parliament moved to postpone the debate on the proposal until next Wednesday.

The Lebanese Forces’ Department of Women’s Affairs not only called to abolish the article but also to prosecute the rapists — insisting that 522 stands as an insult to “women and violates their dignity and the safety of the family and stability.”

The hashtag #Undress522 has also been launched to trigger online discussion and awareness on the matter.

It teamed up with local NGO, ABAAD, which made visual inroads as it displayed in front of parliament building at Nijmeh Square a woman dressed in a white wedding dress made with bandages, to say that this was not acceptable.

The idea for the visual was taken from a powerful video made by Danielle Rizkallah that shows how a woman is beaten and raped before her bruises are covered with bandages that resemble a white dress.

Model Galina Yordanova played the role and stood outside parliament to sensitise lawmakers to the plight under the slogan “A White Dress Doesn’t Cover the Rape”.

ABAAD recently issued a comprehensive 271-page study in Arabic by Azza Charara Baydoun, “Domestic Violence” which dotted the i’s and crossed every imaginable t in the ultraconservative Lebanese society that skirts with liberalism in public, but insists on ancient norms in private.

The heavily researched and annotated book confirms that 4 per cent of Lebanese women are subjected to verbal abuses, 8 per cent to physical assaults, 13 per cent to financial constraints, 17 per cent to rape, and a whopping 41 per cent are routinely subjected to legal violence since the current law protects the man instead of his victim.

According to an ABAAD commissioned survey, “60 per cent of the Lebanese population is in favour of repealing Article 522 with 84 per cent considering that it protects the rapist from prosecution and punishment.”

Another 73 per cent consider that the Article increases pressure on women to marry their rapists with the same number considering that the Article reflects society’s preference for preserving a family’s ‘honour’, rather than seeking justice for a woman’s suffering.

Backward people are in desperate need of re-defining what honour really is.

    Lebanon is about 54% Muslim, 40% Christian, and 5.6% Druze

Yeshiva Rabbi Receives Award then Resigns After Child Sex Abuse Comments

A RABBI condemned by Jewish leaders for his comments regarding child sex abuse “hype” and the need for pedophiles to receive greater leniency has resigned from the board of Sydney, Australia’s Yeshiva Centre.

This happened just days after controversially receiving an award from Chabad.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman, a rabbinical director at the Yeshiva Centre in Bondi and son of the ultra-orthodox Chabad movement’s spiritual head in NSW, also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he did not know it was illegal for a man to touch a child’s genitals when he had to deal with an abuse complaint in 2002.

Nor did he seem to know that it was immoral - something he has yet to admit.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman

His evidence to the royal commission provoked a firestorm in the Jewish community, with the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of Australia yesterday adding its voice to those calling for Rabbi Feldman to end his pastoral and community involvement.

Call to strip rabbi of all powers

Today the Yeshiva Centre said Rabbi Feldman had resigned his position as a director on its Board of Management, including his administrative responsibilities.

“The Yeshiva Centre thanks Rabbi Yosef Feldman for his years of selfless dedication to the Centre,” it said in a statement. “The Yeshiva Centre reiterates its staunch commitment to protect victims of abuse including full compliance with authorities and legal procedures.”

Yeshiva spokesman Rabbi Eli Feldman, the brother of Rabbi Yosef Feldman, told The Australian that the resignation did not preclude Rabbi Yosef Feldman from any future paid or unpaid role with the Yeshiva Centre and its associated entities, paid or unpaid.

Of course not! The last position he resigned from in controversy, rehired him as soon as the controversy died down. Smoke and mirrors. No genuine acknowledgement of guilt.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman previously resigned a position as president of the NSW Rabbinical Council amid controversy about some of his email comments relating to child sexual abuse.

He resumed the position a short time later.

In a statement released today, Rabbi Yosef Feldman said he apologised to anyone “who may have been embarrassed or ashamed by my views, words, understandings, recordings or emails about child sexual abuse or any other matter.”

“I have dedicated my life to doing whatever I can to protect and assist all people in need including those who have suffered from any form of abuse, especially children, and it pains me greatly that words that I have expressed have upset victims and their families,” he said.

“In the future I will be more careful with my words, so that they are only a source of pride to the Jewish and General community.

In other words, he will stop speaking the truth and start lying right from the start.

“I commit to undertake formal training and education on how to identify, handle and report abuse allegations.”

Chabad Gave Torah Honors Last Shabbat To Rabbis Accused Of Child Sex Abuse Coverups

Chabad in Melbourne gave Rabbi Avrohom Glick and Rabbi Yosef Feldman aliyot this past Shabbat, even though both have been exposed at the Australian Royal Commission investigating child sex abuse as people who allegedly covered up child sex abuse, enabled it and harassed alleged victims.

Rabbi Yossef Feldman

Rabbi Avrohom Glick

Feldman, in fact, told the commission that he wasn't sure if an adult male touching a child's genitals was criminal and if it needed to be reported to police. (He later clarified this by saying there are different types of touch.)

Feldman also admitted that he had never familiarized himself with Australian law on mandatory reporters and child sex abuse, even though he was a mandatory reporter who was in charge of a yeshiva in which children were molested under his watch. But he got an aliyah after that testimony nonetheless.

The Herald Sun reports:

A JEWISH victim of child sexual abuse was forced to sit and watch at the weekend as Rabbis accused of a widespread cover-up were granted religious honours.

The victim, known only as AVB, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse today that the honours were granted during a shul service at Yeshivah Synagogue.

He said both Rabbi Abraham Glick and Rabbi Yosef Feldman were given the honours in front of the congregation.

Rabbi Glick is yet to give evidence to the commission but has been blamed for failing to handle complaints of child abuse appropriately.

The former Yeshivah College principal still holds one of the most senior positions at the school despite reports he didn’t pass on numerous alleged incidents of sexual abuse to authorities while in charge between 1986 and 2007.

He was in charge of the school when convicted paedophile Rabbi David Kramer was hurriedly shipped to the US after complaints were made by parents alleging serious sexual misconduct in the early 1990s.

This is what happens when your 'religion' becomes your idol and takes your eyes off God. It's true of the Catholic church more-so than any other institution.

Rabbi Feldman sparked widespread criticism yesterday when he made a shocking defence of paedophiles, saying some should be left alone if they have not offended for several decades.

Rabbi Feldman said he didn’t agree that paedophiles who had repented and not reoffended risked jail time if they were prosecuted.

While the men were granted the honours at the weekend victims of abuse have complained that they have been shunned from receiving them since going public with their stories.

AVB said he and his family had been bullied, harrased and vilified for trying to rid the ultra-orthodox Chabad commuity of the sexual abuse scourge.

He said one Rabbi had even referred to him as a ‘moser’, the most offensive term for Jews, referring to one who breaks the rule of Mesirah, informing on Jews to secular authorities.

“We are being victimised. We’re being judged,” he said.

“The foundation is rotten to its core."

“I often wonder whether I made the right decision coming forward.

“I know I need to do what I need to do if we’re going to change things.”

Comparing the child sexual abuse crisis to the Holocaust AVB said Jews needed to learn from the wrongs of the past.

“We will never forget (the Holocaust). That is always etched in our history so it shall never happen again,” he said. “The holocaust was the murder of Jews."

“We’ve heard evidence from multiple rabbis that the perpetration of abuse is a kin to murder."

“We need to accept and hold up that the murdering of children through sexual abuse by our own is also a crime."

“Those individuals need to be, I’m not sure if the word is banished, but they need to be held in that regard as having perpetrated that murder.”

AVB, who was molested by Yeshivah employees Daniel Hayman and David Cyrprys in Melbourne and Sydney, said abuse perpetrated on him was wholly avoidable.

And he said the Yeshivah community continued to rally around his abusers.

Yesterday, Rabbi Feldman, a close friend of Daniel Hayman, admitted being angry when he was charged fearing he would end up in jail.

“Is it just a situation where we punish someone for what they did 40 years ago even though they’ve changed totally? They’re not a threat to society and everything else,” he said.

“Of course according to law you’re supposed to, I never said it shouldn’t be done according to law.

“But I’m certainly not happy about it. I’ve said this again and again. I don't know why this is an issue.”…

Astonishing!