Male prostitution in Pakistan
Today a time has come when we are talking about animal rights we have somewhere ignored the rights of human. This seems to be limited to black and white only as the reality is even bitterer than what we can expect. In this day and age where institutions working for women empowerment are at their peak, male’s rights are violated at their worst. They are deprived of their basic rights in the name of male chauvinism. Women’s day was observed recently but these beings don’t even have any platform to raise their voices against the prejudice happening to them. Many of us may isolate ourselves with this growing concern, as it still remains a taboo. Talking over this issue may give an impression of being culturally inappropriate but we don’t have any idea of how this reality has weaved into our culture behind the closed doors. The problem lies in our attitude. We are not ready to accept it and we cannot combat this issue unless we accept it. People think that as our country is Islamic therefore, these problems don’t exist here but the reality is contrary. According to Lahore Nama (2008) the precise prevalence of the male sex workers in Lahore is unknown but on the basis of the findings of international agencies in 2002 they numbered around 38,000.
The question that now arises is why is it prevalent? What are the driving forces? The answer is quite alarming. Male prostitution has its origin in child sexual abuse. As cited by Roschbeth Ewald “the beginnings of sexual addiction are usually rooted up in adolescence or childhood. It is found that 60% of sexual addicts were abused by someone in their childhood”. Moreover, according to Sultan Jabbar a psychologist “After boys are abused a few times they get addicted to it”. They are usually left at the mercy of their fate when their family members throw them out after knowing about their addiction.
There are several other factors also which are aiding this inhuman fashion to prevail in our society. Inflation has drowned many of the families economically. Countries like Pakistan, which has a dependency rate of 76% (WHO, 2009), are increasingly affected by this observable fact. People are heading towards professions that offer easy money. Deterioration of economic conditions has resulted in sky-scraping redundancy and therefore, we encounter increasing cases of child labor and prostitution. Some of the prostitutes may do it for their sexual preference being males but this is not the case with most of them.
Rajabali, A. (2008) in his article “HIV and homosexuality in Pakistan has cited that the first case of HIV was reported in 1987. In 2002 total reported cases were 1913, which has dramatically increased to 85000 by the year 2005. This figure is an eye-opener for all of us as it will certainly affect us in the near future and we should also not deny the fact of underreporting in our country. The most common cause of HIV transmission is found to be homosexuality and multiple partners and men having sex with men is contributing to a great extent. (Rajabali, A. 2008).
This is not the only effect which these brutal practices brought to our society. It also plays a pivotal role in transmitting other sexually transmitted diseases which may results in severe infections. Homosexuality is also associated with psychological effects. Pierre, J. (1997) has cited several studies which affirm the high suicidal rates among male homosexuals. The fact of male prostitution is widespread and is doing more harm because of the illiteracy and lack of awareness among people involved in it. The literacy rate of Pakistan as reported in Daily times (2009) is 42% in females and 67% among males and we should also take into account the fact that it includes all those who can just write their names only. Knowledge about safe sex is also very rare among these individuals. Spreading awareness is another challenge, health care professional faces as in country like ours inculcating awareness about safe sex is regarded as promoting sex which is haram (prohibited) in Islam. Male prostitutes are also indulged in other high risk behaviors including drug addiction which is again contributing to the pool of HIV infected individuals. Furthermore, they don’t have access to health care facilities as a result of stigma attached to this phenomenon. Female prostitutes get advantage from various institutions working for their rights but poor males are underprivileged in this regard too.
Male prostitution has many atrocious effects ranging from low self esteem to severe infections. Paradoxically, there is nothing being done to control this humiliating act at government level even we don’t have proper records of people engaged in it.
There are many unrevealed realities which we cannot ignore and if we will not take any initiative to stop it then we are putting our next generation at risk. By knowing the fact that male prostitution has its roots in child abuse, we as an individual should take a stand first, by raising awareness among children on good and bad touch and then by being proactive regarding their security. We should also educate them about sex and harassment because they will get to know it anyhow and we cannot limit their access to wrong information. This has to be communicated to them but now we have to decide that are we brave enough to educate our children or we leave them on their fate. We should also protest as a society against this inhumane fashion because today, if we’ll let it go then the day is not far when we will come across it personally and that would be too late to regret.
References:
Ewald, R. (2003, May 13). Sexual Addiction. AllPsych Journal, Retrieved March 28,
2010 from http://allpsych.com/journal/sexaddiction.html
Female literacy rate 42 percent, National Assembly told. (2009, January 29). Daily
Times.
Male prostitution, a hidden shame: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. (2009,
January 13). Daily Times.
Marginalised male sex workers vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. (June 3, 2008), Retrieved
March26, 2010 from http://lahorenama.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/lahore- marginalised-male-sex-workers-vulnerable-to-hivaids/
Rajabali, A., Khan, S., Warraich, H. J., Khanani, M. R., & Ali,S. H (2008,August). HIV
and Homosexuality in Pakistan. Retrieved March 20, 2010. From http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W8X-4T1RDF0X&_user=10&_coverDate=08/31/2008&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1280916095&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=d96a071396f372148b8383f50c9f673f
World Health Organization Report, (2009, September). Demographic indicators.
Retrieved March 22, 2010 from http://www.emro.who.int/emrinfo/index.asp?Ctry=pak
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