out it, she is worth nothing to her family and soci-
ety. This dictum extends even to young girls. For a
“good” girl, sexual awakening is permitted only
after marriage and by her husband. Girls and
women fervently internalize the social message that
a virtuous female is sexually naive. This may place
young girls in a difficult bind, not only in terms of
defending themselves against sexual assault, but
also speaking openly when such abuse occurs.
Since every sex act is considered to be a carnal
deed even when coerced, a girl/woman is consid-
ered to be indirectly, if not directly, complicit in her
own victimization. While Sharì≠a confers adulthood
on boys at 18, girls become adults at menarche.
Thus, underage female rape victims in Pakistan are
often charged with zinà. Regardless of age, a girl is
“damaged goods” if sexually violated and can
almost never reclaim her former right to moral
integrity and decency. Once a girl’s “sexual ruin”
becomes public knowledge, she may be perceived
as an open target for men within and outside her
family as it is assumed that she is now valueless. A
girl’s safety often rests on the impeccability of her
social reputation. Many rape victims in Pakistan
have been murdered to restore family honor. Con-
sequently, parents seldom report the rape or sexual
abuse of their daughters to legal authorities. In-
stead, mention of such violence is routinely sup-
pressed and kept secret even from close relatives.
Parallel attitudes toward and consequences for
men, even perpetrators, do not seem to exist.
While perpetrators of child sexual assault could
be of any class, in South Asian Islamic communi-
ties, assault might be less common among girls of
middle- and upper-class families as they are rarely
allowed out unescorted. Thus, class privilege pro-
vides some protection to girls against assault by
strangers. Girls from poor families, who may work
as maids or laborers, are exceptionally vulnerable
to sexual assault by their employers or acquain-
tances, as they have no significant family protec-
tion to depend on.
A few other social structural conditions affect
child sexual abuse in all South Asian societies. First,
although the two sexes are strictly separated to
ensure girls’ safety, the extended family configura-
tion allows many men, related and unrelated, access
to the family/women’s quarters. While older women
stringently supervise activities of adolescent females,
younger girls are given more latitude of action and
movement under the assumption that their age
makes them immune to unwanted sexual attention.
Such relative freedom renders young girls vulnera-
ble to abuse by acquaintances and relatives.
south asia 739Since children are brought up in strict sex-segre-
gation, even siblings and cousins who grow up in
the same household scarcely get an opportunity
to develop mutual friendship and companionable
affection. Thus they may deem sexual relationship
as the only feasible option between opposite gen-
ders. In a society where girls and women are almost
universally out of reach, adolescent boys and men
of all ages may be inclined to sexually exploit
vulnerable young girls, whom they can control
through threats and coercion.
Second, in the Islamic household the father is the
leader and, although ideally both parents ought to
share power, it is the father who has the ultimate
authority. Accordingly, the patriarch and older men
in the family expect complete respect and loyalty
from all family members, especially women and
girls. South Asian children are taught absolute obe-
dience to age-superiors, which makes it difficult to
defy demands from elders, especially when accom-
panied by threats and coercion. Compliant victims
might easily be commanded to submit to sexual
abuse and intimidated into silence.
Lastly, most South Asian societies vigorously
deny the existence of child sexual abuse in their
midst. In Islamic communities, incest takes two
forms: child sexual abuse and sex in forbidden rela-
tionships such as between father-in-law and daugh-
ter-in law. Even when mothers and other women
realize that sexual abuse is occurring within the
family, they may feel helpless and unable to ame-
liorate the situation. Economic dependence on men
and the fear of social reprobation effectively gag
women and keep them from supporting victims.
Regarding legal recourse for sexual violence,
most South Asian nations implement a mixture of
Sharì≠a laws and uniform legal codes for Islamic
communities. Although a number of civil codes
guiding marriage, divorce, and property rights fol-
low Sharì≠a directives, sexual assault including rape
and incest falls within the purview of the criminal
legal systems. In Islamic countries such as Pakistan
and Bangladesh, local community administrations
frequently attempt to employ religious laws for
zinàtransgressions; but these have been recurrently
overturned by the court systems.
Regardless of legal efficacy, social attitudes and
belief systems dominate the conduct of Islamic soci-
eties in South Asia. Correspondingly, a number of
social obstacles prevent girls and women from
seeking legal redress for sexual violation. For
instance, codes of family honor overwhelmingly
prevent individuals from lodging complaints
against members of their own family. The potential