On 2nd April, a Pakistani man, Faisal Rafi, asked people on X (formerly Twitter) if they were raped or sexually abused by a Maulvi (Islamic priest/religious teacher). The question went viral quickly, and the number of people, irrespective of gender, who said yes was shocking. Faisal himself said yes to the question. He said the incident happened to him not at a madrasa but at his home.
Replying to him, a writer named Iqra said, “Same. And I barely know a girl who hasn’t been.”
An X user, Khurram Qureshi, said, “I’m so sorry to hear that Faisal sahib… my brother & I used to receive regular beatings from our Maulvi who used to come to our house…he told us never to tell our parents…I was 8 & my brother was 5…we were scared… Amma walked in one time he was hitting me and threw him out.” To which Faisal replied, “Same, hitting plus groping and fondling, I was like 10, luckily our cook saw it and told my father, that was the end of maulvis in our home, it was terrifying and soul destroying, took me a very long time to recover from that sh*t.”
X user Samia Shoaib said, “Mine drove all the way from Kent to Kingston to teach us. His favourite move was to stick his nasty tongue down my throat (I can still smell the sandalwood ittar on his beard) while groping my nonexistent breasts. When I cried, he slapped my face then resumed as if to comfort me.”
X user Sobia Kapadia said, “The guy who used to come to give lessons to me and my younger sister used to pinch & touch us. We both used to get very uncomfortable. I asked my grandfather to sit with us while he was around. We were very little but our elders should have known better and should have provided protection.”
X user Zahid quoted Faisal and said, “I have. The predator came for donation. Rang the bell & 11 yr old me opened the door. He took my hand & started rubbing it on his privates, while talking of Deen etc… It did not put me off religion, but I can never trust a molvi.“
X user iamnone108 said, “Don’t know about sexual harassment but physically my friend was beaten on knuckles when she couldn’t recite Quran on Sunday classes at home. That moulvi got replaced by another.. Irony is she became more radical now Can’t argue with her.”
X user Marwah Khan said, “Physically yes. But witnessed a lot of harassment and sexual abuse with my eyes and many stories. Was too little to understand it but left me with trauma for life. (Twitter asks me why I have hate for maulvis, here it is).”
The responses made it evident that physical and sexual assault by Maulvis is common in Pakistan, even among Muslims living in the UK. Even in India, such cases have emerged from time to time. In December 2023, a Maulvi named Muntazir Alam was arrested for the sexual assault of a minor girl who came to learn Urdu at a mosque in Hamirpur.
In the same month, a madrasa cleric was accused of sexually abusing a minor girl. The cleric, identified as Maulvi Abdul Mannan, a teacher at Albanat Ekra Academy in Jehanabad, allegedly took the minor to Patna under the guise of meeting a minister to secure a job for her. Upon reaching Patna, he claimed that the minister was in Delhi and that they needed to travel there. The minor reported that when she resisted going to Delhi, the cleric drugged her and forcibly took her to the city. In Delhi, near Jama Masjid, he brought her to a hotel and raped her.
In June 2023, a 41-year-old woman from the Farkpur Police Station area filed a complaint against a Maulvi named Dilshad, alleging he drugged and raped her. She further said in her complaint that Maulvi allegedly extorted Rs 3 lakh from her using an obscene video that he recorded during the sexual assault.
In October 2022, a maulvi attempted to rape a minor in Rajasthan. Reportedly, he forcibly took a 17-year-old girl into a mosque in the Halaina Police Station region of Rajasthan’s Bharatpur and attempted to rape her. The victims cried for help, which was heard by locals, who, along with the victim’s family members, dragged the Maulvi outside the mosque and brutally assaulted him.
