Pakistan, April 14 -- A nine-year-old girl walks into a school in Kot Addu. She doesn't come back the same. The arrest of the man accused of attempting to rape her may offer a sliver of accountability but can anyone, daring to proclaim all is well, really deny how he wasn't a stranger in a dark alley. He was her principal. The very person her parents trusted. What makes it unbearable is not just the raw horror of the act itself; it's the sickening familiarity, the suffocating weight of how routine these betrayals have become.

In 2023, over 4,200 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in Pakistan, according to Sahil. That's twelve children a day. Most victims are between six and 15 years old. The majority of abusers? Known, respected f...