By Saima Williams
PAKISTAN – Saba Shafique, a 12-year-old Christian girl, was abducted Jan 5 from her home in Lahore, Pakistan, and forcibly converted to Islam before being married to her abductor in a distant province.
Her story is a chilling echo of countless others, highlighting a disturbing trend of abduction, forced conversion, and underage marriage targeting young Christian girls in Pakistan.
Saba’s father, Shafique Masih, a retired army painter, recounted the events with a mix of anguish and desperation. His daughter was forcibly taken away by a 35-year-old Muslim neighbor, Muhammad Ali, and taken to Sindh Province, where a fake marriage certificate was produced, falsely stating Saba’s age as 18.
Despite possessing her birth certificate proving she was only 12, the police initially recorded her age as 15-16 in a First Information Report (FIR) containing essential information about the alleged crime, further compounding the family’s ordeal.
Saba’s physical appearance also did not match the age stated on the alleged marriage and Islamic conversion certificates. “Whoever facilitated this sham conversion and marriage should be equally punished along with Ali,” Masih said.
The family’s struggle to reclaim their daughter is emblematic of the systemic challenges faced by religious minorities in Pakistan. Police inaction, deliberate misrepresentation of facts, and the perpetrator’s legal maneuvers to secure “protection” for forced marriage are all too common tactics.
The hapless family lacked funds to travel to Sindh Province to bring Saba home, but with financial assistance from the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, they are now preparing to make the journey, underscoring the crucial role of faith-based organizations in filling the gaps left by state institutions.
A pattern of vulnerability
Saba’s case is not an isolated incident. It reflects a grim pattern documented by human rights organizations and news outlets.
The year 2023 saw a record 136 cases of abduction and forced conversion, with 110 Hindu girls in Sindh and 26 Christian girls in Punjab among the victims, according to the Center for Social Justice.
Unofficial estimates paint an even bleaker picture, suggesting as many as 1,000 girls from religious minorities face this fate annually. A majority of these victims are minors, often as young as 10 years old.
The stories are tragically similar: abduction, forced conversion to Islam, coerced marriage, and subsequent pressure on the victims to provide false statements in favor of their captors. Judicial processes often fail to protect these vulnerable children, with judges frequently disregarding age verification documents and returning them to their abusers under the guise of “legal marriages.”
The persistence of this crisis is rooted in legal loopholes and societal biases.
Pakistan’s laws regarding child marriage are often weakly enforced, and there are ongoing attempts to block legislation aimed at raising the minimum marriage age to 18.
Religious minorities, particularly Christians and Hindus, are often viewed as second-class citizens, making them easy targets for discrimination and abuse.
As Ejaz Augustine, a Christian lawmaker in the Punjab Assembly, points out, “Forced conversions and marriages of minor girls have become a serious crisis for the Christian community.”
He laments the stalled progress of a bill criminalizing child marriages and the influence of “vested interests” working to prevent legal reforms.
Call for justice and protection
Church of Pakistan Moderator Bishop Azad Marshall has joined the call for the enactment and enforcement of the child marriage bill, emphasizing its importance as a safeguard against child marriages and forced conversions.
“There’s no reason why the government should keep the bill pending,” he said, highlighting the urgent need for government action to curb these heinous crimes.
Pakistan’s ranking as the seventh most difficult country in the world for Christians on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch list underscores the vulnerability of this community.
The abduction and forced conversion of young Christian girls like Saba represent a grave violation of human rights and a stain on the conscience of the nation.
The fight for justice and protection for these children requires sustained advocacy, legal reforms, and a fundamental shift in societal attitudes. – UCA News
