According to an online newspaper, one quarter of Saudi children have been molested at least once during their lives. The paper, Al-Wifaq, said that 62 percent of the victims refused to identify the molesters while 6.16 percent said the molestation was done by relatives or individuals who had close contact with the child’s family.
The newspaper based its information on a study done by a Saudi professor; it was conducted in three of the Kingdom’s regions and included college students as well as other groups in society.
These figures should not come as a surprise nor should they frighten us. We are not a society of angels and crime is not a new phenomenon in human history; it has been present since the creation of man and no society is free of it. What is most important here is not the statistics but the fact that action is being taken to address the problem.
The Ministry of Social Affairs has recently set up a special department for social protection and provided free telephone lines for people to call when they feel they need protection. These are good signs and will pave the way for a more serious approach to finding a solution to the problem.
It is true our hospitals have special child protection units but these have failed to provide protection to children once the child is claimed by parents or relatives. In some cases, the parents and relatives are the ones who molested the child.
The department set up by the ministry should focus on the preventive side. It should also work to ensure there is sufficient education and awareness in our schools to prevent children from falling victim to these attacks. It is extremely important for any child of five years or older to learn how to protect their body. In most cases the child is unaware and unsuspicious of what is happening around them. The fear and concern they feel, however, sticks in their memory.
A study I conducted four years ago in which I interviewed a number of women who had been molested as children showed that although the women were subjected to simple types of molesting, they nevertheless remained worried the rest of their lives and, in many cases, their marriages have failed.
Child molesting is not something new. The new thing is that we have begun taking action to address the problem by addressing the effects and focusing on prevention.
