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Let me share a 2-year-old story that had a positive impact on my daughters.
Being a father to 3 lovely daughters is a blessing for me, what more one could ask of God Almighty. As a father, it is my responsibility to teach them the good, the bad and the worst of life from a father’s perspective. I want them to be strong, confident and bold. Given the age and era we are entering into, I wonder what is waiting for them in the future. So, I want them to be prepared for everything.
I’ve read lots of stories on different blogs or on social media about cases where children were molested by known/unknown persons, girls especially, this alarmed me too and I wanted my daughters to be aware of this but the problem lied within the problem itself that how to explain this to them. My wife was partially against this but I insisted so we together explained them nicely on how to report or know if someone is trying to approach you inappropriately and how to respond if you are alone.
As any other kid would do, they listened to us keenly and started playing straight away. Why do you expect from a 9, 7 and 6 years old? Huh!
Then after a month or so, I had to travel with the middle one from Lahore on a PIA flight, we were seated together at the front seats of the middle row, she was first from right, I was 2nd, and 2 more normal looking gentlemen at my left side. Immediately after takeoff, in the same row, the person sitting at extreme right window seat vomited, my daughter was not feeling comfortable with that and wanted to change seats and flight were jam-packed so there was no room for an immediate change but the air hostess said she will try to change after 15-20 minutes. I switched seats with my daughter and this is where it all begins.
Within few minutes of the seat swap, I noticed the normal looking person’s hand was awkwardly close to my daughter’s body. I was alarmed and pretended as I didn’t notice. Slowly he reached closer and was touching her legs with his palms then suddenly he moved his hand away as if someone has seen him, well someone did you M.F.. a very alert and attentive air hostess seated at the left side near the aircraft door. The man swayed his head away. I looked at the hostess and signaled to stay quiet, she was confused as to why would a father allow this ever…I had a reason that I explained her later how worth the risk was.
After few minutes, when they started serving food, the food tray was open and right over her laps, a perfect cover for a predator. He immediately brought his hand down and started it again, a few seconds and I couldn’t bear anymore. I was about to get up and break his wrist but suddenly something very strange happened. My daughter stood up on the seat, started screaming her lungs out and before I could move, his hair were in her hands and she was literally pulling them with full force and started punching/slapping/beating him where ever she could hit. (We didn’t teach her that, she improvised).
I moved her to safety, turned around and slapped him as hard as I could. People started intervening and very soon it looked like the whole flight was on our heads. That flight attendant came in quickly and moved us to the other section of the aircraft and what happened next doesn’t require explanation.
Later the furious air hostess along with the supervisor came to me and wanted to scratch my face.. (at least that’s how I felt) “how can you let that happen to your daughter, I could have stopped that immediately and she shouldn’t have to go all through this nonsense”, she said.
My answer to her and all of you reading this is that it was agonizing for me too but I had to wait to see my daughter’s reaction, I needed to know whether she will stand up or is she going to be scared of this horrific incident for the rest of her life. She stood up, don’t you see that! She is not scared, the training paid off…I don’t have to stand by her anymore. She can protect herself, she will protect her sisters…She will now be alert for the rest of her life.
We always complain about our national carrier, how pathetic the service is, how rude the staff is. Even I found hair in the food, the coffee was cold and so on but on that specific day, the whole crew stood with us like a family. They protected us.
I’m not stating my name or the date of the incident because of obvious reasons, I don’t want this to come back at us in a negative way but I feel compelled to share this story because a child predator can be the person you don’t even suspect of. We have to be vigilant and we need to take bold steps in protecting our children from such monsters. That person looked normal, dressed decently, looked sophisticated but looks are so deceiving, be alert people, take care of your children. The man was apprehended at the airport and they filed a case against him.
