Gulf Daily News
written by Les Horton
Thursday, February 18, 2010
What sort of man can beat his own child into a coma - and what sort of society can let him get away with it?
Child abuse within the home, whether through violence or sexual assault, has been swept under the carpet in Bahrain for far too long.
It is time to vigorously pursue the abusers, prosecute them and, if convicted, name and shame them so we all know who they are.
A six-year-old Bahraini boy's life has reportedly been ruined, allegedly after such sustained beatings by his father that he has been left in a coma, with massive brain damage.
The prevalence of child abuse is so acute, both within and outside the family, that voluntary organisations run classes and campaigns to teach children how to protect themselves and how to reach out for help.
Now Bahrain is changing its laws to allow police to enter a home where there is evidence of abuse, to rescue the child concerned and remove him or her to a place of safety.
We also live in a society where child rape is no stranger to the headlines and in one case a convicted paedophile, who claims to be driven by the devil, is back in court for further alleged offences.
Yet neither his name nor his face has ever been made public. Once freed, he could be sitting next to your child in the park and you would not know.
It is time for society to commit itself to stamping out child abuse - the majority of cases of which are committed by relatives or someone known to the victim - and a major deterrent must be public shaming.
Families have a right to know whether the smiling neighbour is an abusive parent, or a child sex offender and those who are convicted of such crimes should have their photographs and names published in the Press.
The Be Free Centre, which works to combat such abuse, called last November for a child sex offenders' register to be introduced in Bahrain, which would include the names, photographs and addresses of culprits, particularly serial cases.
Centre manager Rana Al Sairafi said it should be accessible to the public and would act as a deterrent, as well as enabling parents to protect their children from known offenders - though there are always others in the shadows.
"About 30 or 40 years ago, if such an incident happened in Bahrain the abuser would be put on a donkey backwards and taken all around the village, so that everyone knew he had done this, so a sex offenders' registry is like a modern version of this," she said.
There are dangers. A leading newspaper in the UK published a list of known sex offenders a few years ago, sparking vigilante campaigns - in some cases against innocent people who were victims of mistaken identity.
I am not saying that parents who occasionally lash out in temper should be pilloried in public - but those guilty of sustained abuse or cruelty should be prosecuted and named and shamed.
Likewise, sexual predators who prey on children should get severe sentences and their punishment should include being publicly identified, so that once released they cannot slip anonymously back into the community.
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