The National carried a piece on the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi’s visit to a child abuse victim, who was taken to the hospital by parents who claimed her horrific injuries were sustained by falling off a bicycle:
In a statement, Abu Dhabi Police said the girl had been brought into hospital by her father, who lived in Bani Yas, bleeding and suffering from burns, with knife cuts and bruises over her body.
Her father had initially said the youngster had fallen off her bicycle, police said, but a medical examination confirmed she had been “severely abused”. The father and stepmother were subsequently arrested by police.
One can only hope that such a high profile visit by one of the country’s leaders lends enough confidence to abuse victims to speak out, and not bear the suffering in fear and solitude.
More data after the jump.
The BBC recently published an audio slideshow by Fatima, a young Arab female who sought political asylum in the US after being sexually abused. Her heart-wrenching account is posted here.
Fear is not unique to the region’s children. But there are some alarming numbers. A UNICEF study that was published in 2005 said that 3 millions girls and women are subjected to genital mutilation and cutting every year in Egypt, Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa.
A UN study on violence against children in the Middle East and North Africa describes why it can be hard for sexual abuse of children to come to the light:
Sometimes violence in the home or inflicted by members of the family circle is hidden not because people accept it but conversely because no-one would accept it if it came to light. This is the case of children who are sexually abused. They face long-term repercussions of that violence. Not only do they suffer the severe health repercussions of what is essentially rape, they also live with extreme psychological damage that often gets worse as they grow to understand better what has happened to them. They may grow ashamed, feeling that somehow they were to blame, and so retreat from social contact with others. They may find it difficult to trust people because a person they thought they could trust took advantage of that to hurt them. These children will need long-term support and understanding.
The UN report criticizes Arab governments for not working enough to bring national laws in line with international children’s rights conventions that they ratified. Which is why the UAE’s steps towards formulating a national program fighting child abuse, including elements such as hotlines for children and awareness campaigns, and criminalizing individuals who know of the abuse but do not report it, would be a great thing, if long overdue. A sexual predator registry would also be a good idea.
The report has some staggering numbers. The minimum legal age for marriage in Sudan is 10. 25 women are murdered in Jordan alone every year in “honor killings”. In Kuwait, a husband faces a maximum of 3 years in jail and a fine for killing his wife because of adultery. 90% of women in Egypt, Sudan and Djibouti have been subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) despite laws prohibiting it.
Unfortunately, there are no specific numbers for regional child abuse, because of the difficulty of collecting accurate data – how WOULD you go about finding how many children have been sexually assaulted or beaten? One way is to ask hospitals for specific injury patterns, which is obviously inadequate.
But it’s no longer enough to just weep for the silent and fearful.
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