Muted Voices and Omitted Truths: A Social Constructivist Analysis of Child Rape in Pakistani Media

Abstract

This research study on child rape is conducted from the social constructivist perspective about gender and sex in connection with the dynamics of power relations in the Pakistani social system. The study is conducted with intersectional methodology using the discourse theory to analyze media texts. CDA is conducted through textual-linguistic analysis and the media texts consists of all the opinion columns and editorials about the selected case study. Zainab Ansari rape case in January 2018 was selected for study. Newspaper articles (editorials and opinion columns) were selected for analysis because these texts present detailed discussion (nature of the problem, causes, effects, solutions and value judgments) about the phenomenon contrary to the news items in which the reporter is supposed to maintain neutrality about the factual description of the event. In our reviewed case, the victim girl was raped and murdered but media made prominent the murder more than the rape. Findings and results of the study lead to outline a new theory called Chance-Adventure-Complex (CAC) Theory of Child Rape. This theory transcends existing theoretical frameworks of rape and provides starting points for further sociological investigations in the phenomenon. Findings revealed that media discourses mainly remain superficial and hollow when describing child rape cases. The perpetrators’ descriptive details are dominantly omitted and the survived victims are muted in the media discourses.