Pakistan still does not know how to talk about, legislate for, or protect its boy victims: Report
Islamabad, Aug 7
Despite rising child sexual abuse cases against them, Pakistan still does not know how to talk about, legislate for, or protect its boy victims, a report has detailed.
In a country like Pakistan, child sexual abuse is not treated as a gender-neutral crime. It is culturally coded as something that happens to girls, and the entire architecture around it, from the language people use to the support systems that exist, reflects that assumption, a report in leading Pakistani daily The Friday Times detailed.
"When we see the covered reports, it recorded 3,364 child abuse cases nationwide, and 47 per cent of the victims were boys. In the 11 to 15 age group, the age bracket most at risk, more boys were affected than girls. These are not marginal figures. They describe a crisis that runs almost parallel to the one involving girls, yet receives a fraction of the institutional attention," the report mentioned.
However, the cases receive little institutional attention, not due to lack of of law, but because the rules that exist in Pakistan are built and publicised around female victims, the Friday Times report mentioned.
"Pakistan passed the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act in 2019 and amended its criminal code in 2016 to toughen penalties for child abuse. The problem is that these laws were built and publicised around female victims, following the murder of Zainab Ansari, while boy victims remain an afterthought in both policy language and public campaigning," it stated.
"A boy who is abused faces a masculinity script that treats disclosure as humiliation rather than survival. Most of the families that might reluctantly seek help for a daughter often choose complete silence for a son, because admitting the abuse threatens an idea of manhood that the culture prizes more than the child's wellbeing," it added.
According to leading child protection NGO Sahil, the majority of cases of child sexual abuse in Pakistan involve relatives, acquaintances, relatives, or religious teachers and people who know exactly how reliable that silence is.
As many as 1,914 incidents of child abuse were reported in Pakistan in the first six months of 2026, according to the latest report released by Sahil. The reported cases include 49 infants who were found abandoned on the road. As many as 1,015 cases of child sexual abuse, 558 cases of kidnapping, 101 cases of missing children, 98 cases of pornography following sexual abuse and 35 cases of child marriages were reported in Pakistan from January to June, Asia News Network (ANN) reported.
The report is based on data gathered from newspapers of four provinces of Pakistan - Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh as well as Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB). Among the total reported cases of child abuse in Pakistan, 58 per cent of victims were girls.
Among the victims, 598 children were aged between 11-15 years, 356 were aged between 16-18 years, 329 belonged to the age group of six to 10 years and 95 victims were aged between zero to five years, Asia News Network reported. The age of victims in 487 cases was not mentioned in the report.
The perpetrators in 43 per cent of the reported cases were acquaintances, while the abusers in 34 per cent of cases were strangers in Pakistan. As many as 57 per cent of cases were reported in urban areas while 43 per cent were reported in rural areas of Pakistan, Asia News Network reported.
— IANS
Reader Comments
The fact that 47% of victims are boys but the laws and campaigns are all designed around girls shows a systemic failure. Zainab Alert Act is named after a girl, but what about the boys who suffer in silence? This is not about competing victims, it's about protecting ALL children. The "masculinity script" mentioned in the report is so true - our societies need to break these toxic norms.
As an Indian, I feel sad for the children of Pakistan. But let's be honest - we have similar problems in our country too. The difference is we are at least discussing these issues openly. The neighbour needs to do the same. Child abuse is child abuse regardless of gender. The silence around male victims is criminal.
The data is alarming - 3,364 cases in one year and almost half are boys. But the real crisis is that families are choosing silence over justice for their sons. The "masculinity script" is something we see in Indian society too, where boys are told to "man up" and not show vulnerability. This is a regional problem that needs regional solutions and open dialogue.
Sadly, this is what happens when religion and culture mix with law. The society refuses to accept that boys can be victims too. The fact that 43% of perpetrators are acquaintances and 34% strangers shows how unsafe children are in Pakistan. My heart goes out to all the victims. India should also learn from this - we need to be more vigilant about protecting ALL our children, not just girls.
The report highlights a deep cultural problem - when society refuses to see a crime,
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.