Unlicensed religious tutors ‘a risk’ to families

In recent years, there have been a small number of cases in which unlicensed religious teachers have abused children.

ABU DHABI // Incidents of child abuse by unlicensed religious tutors have been reported during the past few years.

Since 2013, The National has reported on nine such cases in the courts.

One parent who discovered the dangers of hiring an unregistered Quran teacher was N A, a Pakistani. She hired a tutor for her five-year-old daughter on the recommendation of a friend.

But one day N A walked into the room to find the teacher was touching her daughter inappropriately. She and her husband fired the man, but decided not to report him to the police.

“We were so scared, and we knew it was wrong to hire such tutors. We thought we would be in trouble if we complained,” she said.

They have now hired a female Quran teacher. “I don’t think she has any permit but we are relatively relaxed because she is a woman,” said N A.

Zakariya Karaketty, director of the Al Manar Quran Study Centre in Dubai, said cases such as this highlighted the risks of trying to save money by hiring an unlicensed tutor.

“If someone still hires such a teacher then the family is naturally at risk, both of security issues and of legal actions from authorities,” he said.