Until now, I have written numerous articles on my blog, shedding light on the painful topic of child sexual abuse. But today, the time has come to share a deeply personal and long-guarded secret: my own story.

I was in class 9. The school I was studying in was quite conservative. The teachers were good but clueless about this social menace called child sexual abuse. In fact, I remember our science teacher refusing to teach us two chapters of Biology in class 10 – Life Process I and Life Process II. He was perhaps too shy to teach us about topics like sexual and asexual reproduction. This may sound unusual, but it reflects the reality of our society. The word ‘sex’ itself is considered a taboo. In fact, anything related to sex is considered a taboo. In a society like ours, I understand it better now that why our teacher chose not to teach us topics related to human reproduction and instead handed some notes to us to memorise, so that we somehow pass the final examination.

I was always an average student, scoring around 60-65 % marks in my final exams. One fateful day in 2002, my Uncle visited our house and had a conversation with my Mum about a faith healer, named Aijaz Sheikh, who referred to himself as Moulvi Sahab. My Uncle had met Sheikh in a Mosque in Handwara town. He was an Imam there and had impressed my Uncle with his recitation of Quran during the prayers. After sometime, my Uncle got to know that Sheikh has spiritual powers and he claims to heal people’s problems, both business, as well as, health related issues. However, there was a condition. Sheikh could only help solve your issues, if you brought a child aged around 14 to him.

Unfortunately, I happened to be just over 14 then. My Uncle had suffered some huge losses in business and had this feeling that he was under the influence of some sort of black magic, a common belief a lot of people in Kashmir share.

To read the complete article, please click the link given below.

https://musabomer87.wordpress.com/2023/09/03/beyond-the-shadows-overcoming-child-sexual-abuse/