DHAKA: FormerBangladeshi students are turning to social media to detail allegations of"rampant" sex abuse at the hands of teachers and older pupils inIslamic schools, breaking their silence on a taboo topic in the conservativecountry. Child abuse in madrasas has long gone unreported in Bangladesh, aMuslim-majority nation where hardline Islamist groups draw their support fromthe tens of thousands of schools across the nation of 169 million people.
But in the wakeof a brutal murder of a teenage girl who was burnt to death in April afteraccusing her headteacher of sexual assault, such incidents have been subject tonational scrutiny and debate for the first time. In July alone, at least fivemadrasa teachers were arrested on rape charges against boys and girls undertheir care. Several senior students were also held by police over the rape andbeheading of an 11-year-old orphan, while a Dhaka cleric and seminary teacherwas charged with sexually assaulting a dozen boys aged between 12 and 19.
The accusationsreveal how students from poorer and rural backgrounds, whose parents send themto madrasas as they are more affordable than secular schools, aredisproportionately affected by the abuse. Rights activists said the assaults --which range from violent rapes to forcible kissing -- are so pervasive that thecases reported in the media are just the tip of the iceberg. "For yearsthese crimes eluded spotlight due to sensitivity of the subject," AbdusShahid, the head of child rights' group Bangladesh Shishu Odhikar Forum said."Devout Muslims send children to madrasas, but they don't speak up aboutthese crimes as they feel it would harm these key religious institutions."
'Widespread andrampant'
Hojaifa alMamduh, who studied in three madrasas in the capital Dhaka, published a seriesof posts on Facebook in July detailing the abuses endured by students includinghimself. The assaults were "so widespread in the madrasas, every studentwho has studied there knows about it", Al Mamduh, now a journalism studentat a Dhaka University, told AFP. "Many madrasa teachers I know considersex with children a lesser crime than consensual extramarital sex with women.Since they live in the same dormitories, the perpetrators can easily hide theircrimes and put pressure on their poor students to keep mum."
The 23-year-old'sposts generated heated debate in the country, and he was personally threatened.He was accused of being "an agent of Jews and Christians" andsmearing the "sacred image" of a madrasa by one social media user.Another reminded him of the fate of Avijit Roy, a top Bangladeshi atheistblogger and writer who was hacked to death by Islamist extremists in 2015. Buthis posts encouraged others to share their own experiences of alleged sexcrimes.
MostakimbillahMasum, who published his story on a feminist website, said he was "firstraped by an elder student in my madrasa when I was just seven". The25-year-old told AFP that another one of his rapists was "a teacher whomade me unconscious and raped me. It traumatized me permanently"."Dozens of madrasa students I know were either raped or witnessed rapesand sexual assaults of their fellow students," he added. "It is sorampant almost every madrasa has a fair share of such stories."
Culture ofimpunity
Madrasa teachershave strongly denied the allegations, calling them "negativepropaganda". Mahfuzul Haq, a principal of a madrasa in Mohammadpur whereAl Mamduh studied, told AFP "one or two isolated incidents canhappen" as there were 20,000 madrasas in the South Asian nation."Those who don't like to study in madrasas are spreading thesestories," he added.
A spokesman forhardline Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islami, which represents a coalition ofthousands of madrasas, said his organization told a recent conference of 1,200principals to take "tough stand against any sex crimes". However,there has been growing acknowledgment of the alleged offences. Pro-Islamicwebsite Fateh24.com, viewed as a voice for the madrasas, pointed out in areport that children were at risk in smaller seminaries run by just one or twoteachers and that had no oversight from governing bodies.
Editor IftekharJamil, a former madrasa student and teacher, added that the cases were"not isolated" incidents and called for closed-circuit cameras to beinstalled in students' sleeping quarters. "Instead of looking forconspiracies, these madrasas must take up responsibility and adopt an actionplan to tackle these crimes," he said. - AFP