Girls from minority community abducted, forcibly married and converted to Islam in Pakistan: Report

Islamabad, Aug 12 (IANS) At least 2,000 minor girls from Pakistan's religious minority communities are abducted, forcibly married to Muslim men, and forced to convert to Islam each year, a leading minority rights group of the country detailed on Tuesday.

A Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM) report mentioned that gender-based crimes targetting the most vulnerable among the Pakistani religious minorities, particularly minor girls, are also widely recognised by other international bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union.

Expressing concerns regarding the vulnerability of minor girls from non-Muslim families in 2024, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had stated that the exposure of young women and girls belonging to religious minority communities to such heinous human rights violations and the impunity of such crimes can no longer be tolerated or justified.

The UN had not only condemned the abduction, forced marriage, and forced conversion of minor Hindu and Christian girls in Pakistan but also criticised the impunity of these atrocities, noting that courts frequently rule in favour of the abductors.

"Pakistan has a long record of marginalisation of its religious minorities, such as Hindus and Christians. For example, the country is listed as number eight on the annual ranking list of Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors. In addition, roughly speaking, one quarter of all blasphemy accusations are aimed at Christians in Pakistan, while they only make up 1.8 per cent of its entire population," Sonja Dahlmans, an expert on gender-based religious persecution, wrote in VOPM.

Raising concerns about Pakistan's Hindu minority population, the report mentioned that several human rights advocates, including Amnesty International, the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate (CSOH), and the Minority Rights Group, have documented a surge in hate speech, discrimination, and marginalization against Hindus in Pakistan.

"The abduction, forced marriage, and forced conversion of Hindu and Christian minor girls are, and should be treated as, part of the wider problem of discrimination against Pakistan's religious minorities. Islamic law (Sharia) often takes precedence over the Constitution of Pakistan, which, at least on paper, guarantees religious freedom for all," the report emphasised.

It detailed that, once converted to Islam, girls cannot return to their original faith due to the apostasy laws i.e., leaving Islam, which is a capital offence under Pakistan’s religious laws. For example, when 14-year-old Christian girl Maira Shahbaz managed to escape her abductor and rapist, he then accused Maira of apostasy.

Revealing another such incident of systematic abuse, the report highlighted that a 15-year-old Hindu minor girl, Chanda Maharaj, was abducted, forced to marry a Muslim man, and convert to Islam.

During the court proceedings, her parents tried to prove that Chanda was still a minor, and therefore the marriage should be declared null and void according to Pakistani law. The girl was placed in a shelter home, and after a year, the court ordered that Chanda should be returned to her abductor, declaring that all evidence provided by her parents was invalid.

These two cases are just the "tip of the iceberg" as year after year, the report said, several girls and their families are let down by the justice system in Pakistan.

"Abductors and their allies falsify official birth certificates so they can pretend that a girl is not underage, often with the aid of a Muslim cleric who conducts the marriage contract. In other cases, girls have been pressured to testify that their conversion to Islam was voluntary. And, in many instances, abductors and their families have been given custody over a forcibly converted Christian or Hindu minor girl," the report noted.

--IANS

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