‘Good touch and the bad touch’

Bahrain is fully involved in the international fight against child sex abuse and a number of pioneering initiatives are taking place in the kingdom to tackle the problem and empower children.

But workers in the field say more needs to be done to bring offenders to justice and convince victims to come forward.
As recently revealed in GulfWeekly, Colonel Najma Al Dosari, the director of Women Police attended an Interpol convention in Paris. It is the fifth time she has attended the gathering aimed at preventing crimes against children.  
“There were 40 countries represented. From this region Kuwait, Lebanon, Algeria and Morocco were present. Every country gives a presentation about the problems in their own countries,” she said.
The meeting dealt with the online exploitation of children. According to Interpol the spread of the Internet and the anonymity it can provide, as well as technological advances such as high-speed connection and digital cameras, has made it easier for individuals with a perverted interest in children to record their activities, download files or share images.
“Interpol uses information-sharing between countries and this way they can break networks of paedophiles,” said Colonel Al Dosari.
Interpol collects, stores, analyses and disseminates information on child exploitation. One tool used is the Interpol Child Abuse Image Database (ICAID). It contains hundreds of thousands of images of child sexual abuse submitted by member countries.
Image recognition software is used to see where the abuse took place. Once a country of origin is established, the images are sent to the police in the countries concerned. Several hundred victims have been identified this way.
“I felt very sad the first time I went to these meetings and I choked when I heard stories of children who have been abused,” revealed Colonel Al Dosari. “We must protect our children for the future.”
Although exact figures of child sexual abuse in Bahrain are not available, NGOs and government bodies set up to deal with child abuse say that on a yearly basis the numbers are in the hundreds, although many cases go unreported, they said.
In a six month study conducted in 2002, 74 cases of child sexual abuse were referred by the police to Dr Banna Bu Zaboon, now president of the Batelco Centre for Family Violence Victims.
“I was shocked by the number,” she said.  Although a lot is being done to prevent child sexual abuse in the kingdom, Dr Bu Zaboon and other top child protection activists have called for stricter laws to protect children.
 They say that lax law enforcement and lengthy legal processes often prevent victims from coming forward and abusers from being brought to justice.
“With regard to the law here it’s a very long process and most cases get closed before they are concluded,” says Dr Bu Zaboon. “There is no child court or family court here to deal with these cases.
“I have a case which involves a 13-year-old who since the age of 10 had been sexually abused by her sister’s husband. But the man only spent three months in jail before the authorities said there was not enough evidence to keep him.
“There is another case of a seven-year-old boy whose mother came to me complaining about his behaviour. She said he had suddenly become very stubborn, was always fighting and that she had found cigarettes on him.
“I found out he had been going to a local cold-store where a guy working there sexually abused him while others watched, and they rewarded him with cigarettes. They threatened to kill his parents if he told anyone. But the boy’s mother wouldn’t go to the police because she believed that it would achieve nothing.
“I have another case where a 17-year-old girl was raped but the case was closed because they said there was not enough evidence. Now she is in a psychiatric hospital – this is why some people don’t go to the police.
“People need the government to stand with them and implement laws and rules to protect children.” 
Dr Soroor Qarooni, director of the Be Free Centre said: “Very few cases of child sexual abuse are reported. Families worry that they will be looked at differently.
“We had a case recently that was difficult for the parents to report. But they were encouraged to let it go. The case didn’t go to court. There is not a good system in place. The court system should encourage ways of proving these things and bring offenders to justice.”
Two months ago the government set up the Child Protection Unit in an effort to centralise cases of child abuse and to ease the pain that victims and their families go through when reporting abuse.
Since the unit opened, its president, Dr Fakhria L Diari, has dealt with 10 cases of child abuse, three of which have been sexual.
She said: “I estimate there are not less than 80 cases of child sexual abuse reported in a year, although its probably more – in the hundreds overall. There are more than these cases, many cases are hidden. But I have a feeling that with the opening of this centre more people will come forward.”
The unit which was established through Bahrain’s Health Ministry Child Protection Committee aims not only to protect children from abuse but to streamline the way in which cases are dealt with.
“We receive a lot of cases from the courts, neighbours, schools or accident and emergency. We needed a centre for severely abused children,” explained Dr Diari.
“It used to be the case that when a child was abused they went to the police who took information from them. Then the child would be transferred to the paediatrician at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC).
“Then if the child was molested, sexually abused or raped, they would go to the court, and then the child was transferred to the psychotherapist or psychiatrist.
“Already the child was in pain because of the abuse but had to go through all theses processes on top. We decided to create a centre where all this can be done in one place. We wanted to create a place where children could come and be protected and have their rights upheld.”
The unit has two plain clothes police women, a full-time psychotherapist and two social workers, as well as liaison paediatricians and forensic doctors at SMC.
Dr Diari has been a member of the Shura Council for the last four years and was involved in revising bye-laws regarding child protection rights and abuse.
She and other specialists say that in addition to changing lengthy legal processes, child sex abuse can be fought through awareness programmes.
At the Be Free Centre the ‘Anti-Child Abuse and Neglect’ programme teaches children as young as kindergarten age about the dangers of sexual abuse.
“We work with children from ages four to 17. We teach protection skills, how to distinguish between good secret, bad secret and good touch, bad touch,” explained Dr Qarooni.
“We also work on essential skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and promoting the theme ‘I am a safe, smart and strong child.’ If children feel strong they are less likely to be abused.”
So far the centre has trained 7,500 children, as well as 5,000 parents.
However, discussing child sexual abuse with parents often opens up old wounds.
“We talk to parents about how to protect your child from child sexual abuse and the amount of women that come and say I was abused as a child,” revealed Dr Qarooni.
“The others you can see from their looks that they have something to say. And their words are very common: they say this is the first time I’ve ever spoken to anyone about it.”
For these women and other victims, the Be Free Centre and others like it provide a safe space where healing can take place.
Dr Qarooni is currently treating a 55-year-old grandfather who is still suffering from the effects of the sexual abuse he suffered at the age of 10.
She says that most of the people aged between 20 and 30 who come to the centre for healing are men who were abused as boys.
“The culture here is that boys are raised to be strong. When boys are abused they are humiliated. The feelings of humiliation will stay with him all his life until it is resolved in one way or another,” she says.
Both Dr Qarooni and Dr Zaboon say that of whether it is boys or girls who have been sexually abused, it is something that is often hidden, and that the majority of child sex abusers are people close to the family.
They also highlight the danger of cyclical abuse.
“Not all victims of abuse become abusers, but most abusers were victims of abuse when they were children – it’s a cycle. That is why awareness is very important. Children must understand that if it happens it is not their fault,” said Dr Qarooni.

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By -RdS-
editor@gulfweekly.com