Seven-year-old girl raped because she is Christian

Human rights groups report that more than 10,000 women and girls have been victims of sexual violence in Pakistan in the first four months of the year, especially among religious or ethnic minorities. The latest cases include a chilling attack against a child in Sahiwal district.

Lahore (AsiaNews) – In early July, Javeria, a seven-year-old girl, was raped in Chichawatni, a rural subdistrict (Tehsil), in Sahiwal district, in what is the latest and most chilling example of violence against women.

This problem is widespread in Pakistan, with tens of thousands of cases each year, affecting mainly girls and women from ethnic and religious minorities, this according to local human rights activists.

Javeria is from a Christian family. On the day of the attack, she had gone to a store to buy certain things. When she did not return, her father, Javed Masih, started looking for her, eventually finding her in an abandoned building while a man was raping her.

The man fled the scene but was later apprehended by police, while the girl was admitted to Sahiwal District Hospital for a few days.

Voice for Justice, a Pakistani organisation that provides legal aid to those who cannot afford it,  offered to represent Javeria, whose family is destitute.

Like Javeria, “girls from to religious minorities are specifically targeted because they are less likely to receive help from police and other officials in the search for justice,” Voice of Justice chairman Joseph Jansen explained.

"Often in these cases the culprits are not prosecuted and police agents tend to side with the people from the majority religion, i.e. Muslims,” he lamented.

For women's rights activist Farhat Rasheed, Pakistan's culture of impunity encourages perpetrators to commit violence and rape,

"We urgently need for the government to take decisive action in enforcing the laws and setting precedents while punishing the culprits,” she said. Far too often, “connections are used to gain favourable outcomes” because of close ties between law breakers and those who rule.

• pakistan
• rape
• sexual violence
• minorities
• impunity
• police
• nepotism