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RAWALPINDI: A Lebanese-American named Jasmine Abraham author has published a book for children based on ‘good touch, bad touch’.
The Lebanese-American, who lives in Pakistan with her husband and two children, regarding the book said that she published the book due to increasing instances of child sexual abuse in the country.
In an interview with Arab News, Jasmine Abraham shared that her book’s name is ‘The superhero is you!’ which aims to be engaging and child-friendly while discussing concepts related to safe and unsafe touch, body autonomy, consent, secrets, and early warning signs.
“The book aims to empower children to protect themselves, speak up and understand that no one has a right to make them uncomfortable within their own skin,” Abraham said. “Let’s face it,” she continued. “As a country and society, we are not doing enough to prevent and address this critical issue.”
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Speaking to Arab News on the subject, a prominent child protection activist and musician Shehzad Roy described the publication of the book as a “great step” to address a vital social issue. Drawing on his own experience of dealing with education institutes, he noted it was not easy to include such topics in education curriculum since there was always a lot of push back on the matter.
According to Sahil, a local organization working for the protection of Pakistan’s young population, eight children are subjected to sexual abuse in the country every day. Its recent compilation of data, “Cruel Numbers 2020,” reveals that newspapers reported 2,960 such cases last year, though most sexual crimes are not reported in Pakistan.
