Survivors speak out about the ‘hidden’ child sexual abuse in ethnic minority communities
CHILD sexual abuse within ethnic minority communities in Scotland is a “hidden” problem with major gaps in services to help survivors, research has found. A new documentary being screened this month will highlight how cultural barriers such as the fear of bringing “shame” on families make it difficult for victims to seek help.
Researchers from Edinburgh University say there is little knowledge of how widespread the problem is in ethnic communities. They also highlighted gaps in specialist services to help survivors.
The documentary, Hidden In Silence, has been produced by Dr Javita Narang, a researcher at Edinburgh University’s clinical psychology school and Nauman Qureshi, director of Dawn films.
Survivors of child sexual abuse from Scottish ethnic minorities were interviewed for the documentary, which follows the story of two women who speak about their experiences.
Narang said there was a number of social and cultural values which stop people from ethnic minorities talking about sexual abuse.
She said: “The barriers are related to family honour, shame, stigma, marriageability of girls and not breaking up the family or ruining the family status quo. The barriers are very strong, which makes it all the more difficult for people from ethnic minorities to talk about it – although it is, of course, difficult for anyone.”
Narang said there were also very few counselling services in Scotland for helping victims of sexual abuse who were from ethnic minorities. But she said improving services was not necessarily just about recruiting more counsellors from these communities.
“Some people do want to go to counsellors from their own communities because that takes away the need for having an interpreter if they don’t speak English very well.
“But there are some others who said in terms of anonymity they prefer to go to someone else who is not from their community.
“You need more ethnic minority counsellors, but also more mainstream counsellors who are culturally informed as well. That choice needs to be provided to survivors.”
The documentary will be screened in Edinburgh University’s Teviot hall on October 17 and at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire on October 21, followed by a discussion panel with survivors and experts.
Narang said the findings on how to tackle the issue would be fed to the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on adult survivors of sexual abuse.
One of the survivors featured in the documentary, a Pakistani woman in her 40s who wants to remain anonymous, told the Sunday Herald how she was sexually abused by a 17-year-old relative when she was just five years old.
She said: “It was my uncle who was living in a house with the extended family – we shared a bedroom and he took advantage of the situation.
“I can’t remember telling my parents at the time, but apparently I told my mum he was doing this to me and it wasn’t a one-off. But my mum was made out to be a liar and the family just brushed it under the carpet and said she was just trying to break up the family.”
When she had her first child at the age of 25, she decided to tell her mum about the abuse – but was shocked to learn she already knew.
“I am trying to move on from it,” she said. “There is a sense of betrayal. But even to this day (in the community), it is more about protecting the person who has done it, and the person who is the victim is made out to be the liar and made to feel dirty. That is still happening.”
The survivor said she has only recently been able to speak about her experience after receiving help from the Moira Anderson Foundation, which helps victims of sexual abuse, but as yet has not felt able to take her case to the police.
A spokesman for Roshni, a charity which works to raise awareness of child abuse within ethnic minority communities and supported the making of the documentary, said: “It is important that individuals and organisations working with and within minority ethnic communities are aware of the additional barriers children and young people may face that can prevent them reporting abuse.”