Debate grows over sexual abuse in madrassas.
By Dileep Thekkethil
Causing more disgrace to the Kerala Muslim society, a madrassa teacher (ustad) in Kozhikode has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl, a student at the madrassa.
The incident comes on the heels of a journalist, V. P. Rajeena, who had narrated her childhood experience in a madrassa, where an ustad allegedly sexually abused boys and girls.
She described how boys in the class would be abused by the ustad and asked to unzip their shorts. Recounting another incident in Class 4, Rajeena alleged that an ustad abused girls during night classes.
Following that revelation, film director Ali Akbar too had narrated how he was sodomized by his ustad in his madrasa days in the 1970s.
The latest incident has been reported from a madrassa in Kozhikode and the teacher who has been detained by the police has been identified as Shamseer Ashari, 30, a native of the neighboring district of Malappuram. He has been associating with the madrassa for the last one and a half years.
The police said that the victim complained to her parents about the bad conduct of her teacher and soon they took up the matter with the nearby police station.
“The ustad had aggressively touched her private parts. The girl informed her mother after she developed pain. We have produced the victim before a magistrate court to record her statement. She would be taken for a medical examination tomorrow to ascertain the nature of the sexual assault she was subjected to,” said the police sources.
According to police, only one student has complained about the ustad till now.