Social restrictions and existing cultural taboos are a big hurdle in discussions about sensitive issues in Pakistan. Only 29 percent girls and 41 percent boys have access to correct information about puberty and hygiene.
The remaining millions, in their quest for knowledge, often seek information from unreliable sources, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation and life threatening diseases.
Prominent religious scholar Maulana Aftab Hussain Al Jawadi from Jamia Al-Kausar, Islamabd, in a statement issued to the press, stressed on the importance of educating children and providing them proper guidance about puberty.
Maulana Jawadi said: “When adolescent boys and girls enter puberty and start getting young then it is the duty of their parents that they guide them properly about these changes.”
Parents must communicate openly with their children about the physiological changes of puberty and how it is a normal aspect of growth. They must also be informed about personal hygiene related issues.
Maulana Jawadi also emphasised the role of teachers in imparting knowledge on sensitive personal issues. “It is responsibility of teachers as well to make them [children] understand the emotional and psychological aspects of growing up,” Maulana Jawadi said.
Maulana Jawadi went on to stress upon the significance of guidance about sensitive matters. He said: “With this guidance we can save all our future generations from moral deprivation.”
Open and honest communication between parents, teachers and children about sensitive matters provides comfort and confidence to children in that delicate transitional period of growth. Absence of such guidance causes anxiety, frustration and confusion and increases vulnerabilities to sexual abuse/exploitation and life-threatening diseases.
The lack of timely and proper information from the right sources also misleads the adolescent to wrong, illegitimate, immoral, exploitative and abusive sources of information and misconduct.
