Pakistan, broken innocence: An exclusive investigation into sexual violence at madrasas
In Pakistan, more than 2 million children frequently attend madrasas – Koranic schools that offer free religious education to the most disadvantaged. But behind the walls of these revered institutions lies a chilling reality: thousands of children are subjected to sexual violence in deafening silence. Our correspondents bring us a special 31-minute investigation. Warning: viewers may find this report disturbing.
"All the boys in the village were talking about the risk of being raped in the madrasas ... I didn't think it could happen to me," 14-year-old Hassan tells us. Without flinching, the teenager recounts the horror of the rape he suffered at the hands of the mullah who ran the Koranic school he attended in Pakistan. Our reporters met him at his home, two months after the attack.
From the rural province of Punjab to the offices of the capital Islamabad, our reporters Shahzaib Wahlah and Sonia Ghezlai, in collaboration with Talha Saeed, gathered unprecedented eyewitness accounts: a former pupil, now himself an aggressor, who bears witness to the cycle of violence; a father whose son was thrown off the roof of his madrasa after being raped; as well as activists who risk their lives to break the silence.
This special 31-minute documentary is the result of a year's investigation into a hermetically sealed world, where each eyewitness account was obtained at immense risk to those who agreed to appear on camera.
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