Six months later, the 12-year-old found himself in a juvenile prison after being
sexually abused.
"After my relative declined to give me a job at his shop, I went to a labour
market where two men hired me for construction work for 50 Afghani (US $1) a
day. They took me into an empty house where they both forcefully had sex with
me," Abdul said, recalling in vivid detail his confinement for three months
before managing to get away.
But Abdul's nightmare didn't end there. A driver who promised to take him back
to Urozgan for free also abused him, he said. Eventually, Abdul Kabir was able
to find his way back to the poppy field he once worked in as a day labourer.
There, Abdul Kabir said another young man, also working in the poppy field,
tried to rape him. "But I stabbed him in the stomach," Abdul Kabir said - a
move that prompted locals to turn him over to the police.
Unknown victims
According to Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), there
are currently 14 child sex abuse cases in Kandahar province alone, five of
which have been referred to the police for investigation.
However, specialists say this is just the tip of the iceberg, with the vast
majority of cases going unreported.
"No doubt there are numerous other cases which, due to a variety of social
restrictions, go unreported," Shamsuddin Tanwir, AIHRC's director in Kandahar,
said.
Only 29 percent of child sexual abuse cases are actually registered, a joint
AIHRC and Save the Children-Sweden report on child sexual abuse revealed.
One 14-year-old boy in western Herat province said he had been raped but did
not come forward out of fear the police would put him in jail instead.
A health worker in Kandahar's main hospital told IRIN that three to five
sexually abused children receive medical treatment every month.
"Although victims can receive treatment for their physical injuries, the
psychological scars will be with them for a long period of time," Dr Ghulam
Mohammad Sahar said.
And while more than 100 medical staff at two hospitals in Kandahar city, the
provincial capital, have been trained to receive and treat children suffering
from sexual abuse, clearly more needs to be done.
Lack of penal codes
During the time that the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, illegal sex, including sex
with children, brought harsh penalties to the perpetrators, even death.
In the aftermath of the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001,
Afghanistan reintroduced its old civil and penal laws - both of which lack,
however, a specific article on the sexual exploitation of minors.
Article 427 of Afghanistan's penal code determines "long term" imprisonment for
adultery. Those who sexually abuse children are currently jailed and sentenced
according to this article, which can bring a jail sentence of six to 10 years.
But according to AIHRC's Tanwir, only 24.3 percent of abusers, according to
victims' accounts, are actually incarcerated, prompting the rights group to
call upon the government to enact a law on child sexual abuse and exploitation
and to vigorously implement it.
That will remain difficult, however, given the stigma and disgrace associated
with child sex abuse - preventing many people from even speaking openly about
it.
"I wouldn't dare tell my parents what happened to me out of fear that they
would kill me," one 15-year-old rape victim in the capital, Kabul, told IRIN.
Many Afghan parents consider any discussion about sex with their children as
indecent and rude even though many cases of children being sexually abused
happen within households, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) found.
"Forty percent of child abuse victims experience sexual abuse at home, where
they should be safe," Noriko Izumi, a children's protection offer for UNICEF in
Kabul, said.
Ignorance, insecurity and poverty
UNICEF and some NGOs have been pioneering ways to broaden public awareness of
child sexual abuse by training school teachers, disseminating educational audio
and video programmes, and establishing and strengthening child protection
networks.
"If parents teach their children how to behave with elders outside home and
avoid proximity to strangers, to some extent, that would help reduce unwanted
incidents," Babrak Zadran, an AIHRC staff member in Kabul, recommended.
Child sexual abuse has multifaceted causes, one being pervasive poverty,
experts say.
According to AIHRC, over 46 percent of sexually abused children live in abject
poverty, making them particularly vulnerable to various forms of exploitation.
Children who work in hotels, shops and other public places not only face the
risk of sexual abuse, they also face physical and mental violence, the
country's rights watchdog found.
According to Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan human rights activist and MP, for the
past 25 years the majority of the country has suffered perpetual war and
violence that has culminated not only in the physical destruction of the
country, but has also brought about an obscurantist culture of war with very
little respect for human rights.
"Given the political and security situation in the country, particularly in the
south, I think the general protection issue concerning children is getting more
difficult," UNICEF's Izumi concluded.
IRIN
