Widespread, systemic sexual abuse of children, finally beginning to be exposed to the light: Islamic schools under abuse scrutiny.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The accounts are disturbing: beatings, forced sex and imprisonment with shackles and leg irons. Abuse accusations from hundreds of children sent to study at Islamic schools are prompting growing calls from parents and rights groups for a full-scale investigation.

But officials have moved slowly and cautiously in probing the charges of mistreatment in Quranic schools, or madrassas — pointing to a paradox across much of the Muslim world. It’s often easier to tackle Islamic militants than to confront the cultural taboo on publicly airing alleged sex crimes and challenging influential clerics.

Still, if Islamic institutions ever face a reckoning over sexual abuse — such as the Roman Catholic upheavals in recent years — it could begin in Pakistan where institutions already are under unprecedented scrutiny by anti-terrorism agents.

“We are forcing people to look this problem in the eye,” said Zia Ahmed Awan, whose group Madadgaar, or Helper, compiles reports of sexual abuse of children in Pakistan. “It is not anti-Muslim. It is not anti-cleric. We are looking out for the most vulnerable in society.”

Last year, a Pakistani official stunned his nation by officially disclosing more than 500 complaints of sexual assaults against young boys studying in madrassas.