Exactly a day after World Children’s Day, the Associated Press broke an investigative story about Pakistani madrasas being the hotbed of sexual crimes against minors. The report had highlighted the plight of kids from poverty-stricken households, enrolled in Islamic schools for free religious education and meals, who had been molested or raped by the maulvi and subsequently threatened to keep mum.

Pakistani English newspapers like Dawn and The Express Tribune were quick to pick up the story, mostly copying the contents of the original story, but there was pin-drop silence on the news channels regarding the same. Flipping one channel to another, looking for a headline, a discourse or even a ticker, I was disappointed to find nothing related to this pertinent social story. I then reminded myself that here in Pakistan religious clerics are royalty, shielded by the powerful, revered blindly by the masses, and sexual abuse is a topic we are simply not bothered about. Mix the two and one gets a lethal concoction that is taboo to touch.

In mullah raj, vulnerable kids who are being sodomised by the torch-bearers of faith stand no chance of ever being heard with compassion by the masses. We like to idolise our bearded scholars to the point of worshipping them, for us they can seldom be in the wrong. Forever-thirsty-for-ratings news channels spent a majority of this year focusing excessively on the financial corruption of Nawaz Sharif and associates; moral corruption in the country has never really been of much interest to them.

There was little or no outrage on social media regarding the latest investigative report that found hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by clerics in the past decade. Some Twitter users were quick to dismiss the findings as Western propaganda (this theory seems to be the answer to all our problems each time).

Others drew parallels to similar abuse found in European churches, few were willing to acknowledge that sexual abuse of minors in religious schools is a pandemic matter. One that we have known about all along but intentionally overlook because faith holds more weight than humanity in this country.

While the West may be erupting with personal horror stories of #MeToo, there is no similar urgency to talk about what makes us uncomfortable as a society in Pakistan. Just a few weeks ago, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Roy had raised her concerns regarding personal boundaries and stalking, which is prevalent in Pakistan. She had invoked the ire of Pakistanis, who then trended against her on social media for days, they accused her of defaming Pakistan in front of the world and trivialising the issue of sexual harassment. Today, those people are nowhere to be found, not many voices are being raised for young children who have been raped by the same madrasa personnel that were supposed to protect them.

I then turned to the various WhatsApp groups that I am a part of, whose group members include some of the most prolific names of Pakistani media, hoping to find some souls who may be seething with anger regarding the issue. These groups can, at times, accumulate up to 200 messages an hour, with every journalist analysing and over analysing the minutest details of each news item. The Associated Press story of rape and forced forgiveness in madrasas had been shared on one group by a journalist, but it was quickly shot down by a top anchor, who commented that such things also happen in English-medium schools here, Islamic educational centres need not be singled out. Perhaps he was right but we as a nation are palpitating with unbridled, unchecked sexual energy and the lack of extensive discussion on the topic means that we shall always remain in the dark as a society. We will continue to fail at shielding the preyed-upon ones from the predators because we are in a state of complete denial.

Last week also news had surfaced about a five-year-old girl being raped in Larkana, Sindh, she was then strangled resulting in her immediate death. There was no uproar, hardly any debates on sexual offences in the community, no candlelight marches for the little angel. The poor of this country meet a similar fate even in death, that of utter disregard.

Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s conviction in August, on charges of rape, had made headlines on almost all the news channels of Pakistan, some were even careful to drop Rahim from his name, but there was ample coverage of his crimes simply because he was not one from us. Primetime shows this time chose to remain focused on the ongoing dharna in Islamabad, Nawaz Sharif’s power as a politician and other local political news, with the general elections coming up next year the country is now sharply divided along political lines with no time for its citizens. A social media comment on the Associated Press report best encapsulated our reaction to the madrasa story, the comment said, ‘Saddest part: zero surprise there.’ We are deliberately choosing to be silent on this one.