…The Cry of Child Sexual Abuse…

When will we begin reaching out to the children who have surrendered to male predators, including brothers, fathers, grandfathers, uncles and cousins or perhaps neighbors or male servants? When we will acknowledge that Child Sexual Abuse occurs in our innermost family circles? Society have closed one eye to this serious and powerful issue in which it is being clarified as a taboo or a sensitive matter to be talked about. Since then, the victims of CSA (Child Sexual Abuse) have fallen deep down into the world of silence which surrounds them and later result negatively towards the victims. Most of the victims are afraid to speak up and they keep on blaming themselves and have misplaced their blame or anger to themselves instead of on their perpetrators. The same goes to Mala, the protagonist in Mahesh Dattani’s 30 Days In September who has been traumatised by the haunting memories of being sexually abused by her abuser---her own uncle. Looking at the situation in Malaysia, we do have cases on Child Sexual Abuse which most of them are incest. We have a strong support system such as counsellors, legal activists, sex education and campaign for awareness; unfortunately all these are not helping enough because of the rejections by the society. In my opinion, our society---citizen of Malaysia and other countries of the world---should not take this issue lightly so that the painful problem of CSA could be healed and prevented.