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And yet, for all gruesome details of Zainab's killing and all the outrage currently coursing through Pakistan, it is unlikely that children like Zainab will gain any meaningful protection from childhood sexual abuse.
Even in Pakistan's urban private schools, children never learn how to protect themselves from pedophiles and unwanted touching, and teachers never learn how to detect warning signs that a child is being victimized. The taboo against public discussions of sex is extended to sex education and child sexual abuse prevention. Teaching a child about what sorts of behavior an adult or older child must never ever inflict on them is believed to be the same as teaching an innocent child about having sex. The concept that sex education can be done in an age-appropriate way to protect the child from abuse is anathema.
This social and cultural ignorance compounds the shame that victims feel and reduces the number of reported cases. While NGOs like Sahil, an organization that works to protect children from sexual abuse and promote the rights of children in Pakistan, produce annual reports that compile cases during a given year, they largely rely on cases reported to the media because there are no national statistics maintained by the government. What is not counted simply does not exist and does not require resource allocation.
While attention is being given to this particular case, there is no recognition either in society at large or within government institutions of the need to provide sexual abuse prevention education to children, teachers and health care professionals.
And even though childhood sexual abuse is a crime in Pakistan, the absence of tools to investigate and successfully prosecute these crimes means that even when reports are made, perpetrators are not always punished. A culture of impunity, one that encourages further pedophilia and persecution of children, is hence created.
In addition to the absence of sexual education, the lack of resources to properly build a sexual assault case against a perpetrator also presents a roadblock.
Pakistan is a shame culture, where what is not seen or talked about openly does not have moral reality or import. Pedophiles benefit from this aversion to uncomfortable discussions, taking cover in the silence and ignorance and impunity of the private realm.
Zainab Amin's ghastly and tragic end will likely get a few more days of attention in Pakistan, but unless the taboo against informing and educating children is destroyed, rehabilitative services made a priority and investigative resources allotted to the thousands of cases, many more children like Zainab will remain imperiled.