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The number of Pakistani Christian girls abducted, abused, and forcefully converted to Islam with the law’s consent is growing.
In January, the Christian Daily International-Morning Star News reported the following cases:
- On January 5, a married, 35-year-old Muslim neighbor of a 12-year-old Christian girl, Saba Shafique, abducted her in Punjab Province. He took her to another province, where he forcibly converted her to Islam and married her, her father said.
- On January 9, five Muslims abducted a 14-year-old Christian girl, Saneha Sharif, from outside her home in Punjab. Sharif Masih said he fears the kidnappers may try to forcibly convert his daughter to Islam and force her to marry one of the Muslim suspects.
- On January 20, three Muslims abducted a 12-year-old Christian girl, Ariha Gulzar, at gunpoint from her home in Punjab. They have threatened to sell her into sexual slavery, her parents said.
These are not isolated cases. Many Christian girls as young as 7 — primarily from poor families and those with physical disabilities — are kidnapped, forcibly married, sexually assaulted and forced to convert to Islam on the pain of death. Some are trafficked into slave labor and the sex trade. Christian and Hindu parents are getting increasingly fearful of allowing their daughters to walk alone outside. Perpetrators are increasingly supported by Islamic religious leaders and enjoy de facto impunity for their actions.
Many Christian families never see their girls again, the state authorities rarely take meaningful action to bring perpetrators to justice, and police are often biased, refusing to file reports from Christian families.
According to the 2024 Pakistan country report by Open Doors, a human rights organization, Christian persecution in the country comes from government officials, Islamic religious leaders, violent Islamic groups and revolutionaries or paramilitary groups, political parties, ideological pressure groups and normal citizens – in other words, almost the entire country.
Discrimination and challenges for Christians are prevalent at every government tier and even in secular environments, notes Open Doors. This is true for the army, the judicial and the administrative services as well (especially at the local level) although Christians continue to serve in these areas.
The Movement for Solidarity and Peace calculates that in Pakistan up to 1,000 young Christian and Hindu girls and young women aged between 12 and 25 are abducted by Muslim men every year. The research, which suggests that Christians make up 70 percent of these cases, found that the scale of the problem “is likely to be much greater as a number of the cases are never reported and do not progress through law enforcement and the legal systems”. Many of the girls suffer rape, forced prostitution, human trafficking and domestic abuse.
While all women are vulnerable to gender-based violence in Pakistan, women from Christian and Hindu minorities face overt and violent forms of persecution. According to Open Doors,
“The legal system repeatedly fails these young women … The psychological trauma and abuse continue even if a case is brought to bring back the girl. Many of them are forced to say they are over 18 years old or that they converted voluntarily…
“The challenges involved represent a huge emotional strain for the families who constantly fear retribution from the perpetrators and their supporters, as well as the reality that for most Christian girls a return to her family is near impossible.
Jubilee Campaign reported in a 2023 written statement to the UN Human Rights Council that in many cases, Christian girls are forcibly married to men who are twice their age or more, including those who are already married with children near the victim’s age.
For the small minority of rescued victims, the shame of abduction and rape places a shadow over their lives within Pakistan’s honor-based culture. Survivors show higher rates of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and detachment.
Meanwhile, it remains a great challenge to achieve equitable recognition of conversions. Converts from Islam will never be recognized officially, and they continue living as Muslims. However, the recognition of conversions to Islam from a Christian or Hindu background is swiftly accepted and the National Identity Card easily changed.
Christian women and girls are also at risk of sexual violence in the public sphere, including the workplace and schools. This is part of a wider attitude towards Christian girls and women: Muslim men often believe that Christian women and girls have loose morals and are easily available.
Many are house-maids or cleaners and are targeted for sexual exploitation. It is becoming normal to rape young Christian children. Reports revealed sexual assaults against a three-year old Christian girl by her Muslim teacher and an eight-year-old girl at the hands of her school principal in 2021.
Christian women and girls are also at risk of honor killings. It is estimated that around 1,000 women are killed annually in honor killings. This includes the case of 24-year old Sonia, from Rawalpindi, who was fatally shot in 2020 by a Muslim man for refusing to marry him.
Traveling within Pakistan is often limited for Christians and there are grave security risks connected with it:
“Even with the option of government security and support from the local bishop, it has been judged unwise to travel to certain parts of the country, such as Peshawar, with religious hatred cited as one of the causes for concern. For Christian women, especially those traveling on their own, the risks are especially acute, particularly in areas with strong Islamist influence where the notion of travel by unaccompanied females is anathema.”
The Pakistani media are routinely biased against Christians. For example, when a Muslim man is accused of abducting an underage Christian girl and forcing her to marry him, the standard editorial approach is to declare it a “love match” in which the girl is fully implicated. Such coverage will routinely fail to give consideration to the issue of her being under-age and the undue pressure likely applied by the so-called husband who is often decades older and has often acted without the consent of the individual’s parents and who in the West would be accused of pedophilia.
Most abduction cases do not get media coverage, and the victims suffer in silence, notes Open Doors.
Some of those incidents go unreported because the Christians involved choose not to speak about the resulting hostility. Doing so would expose them to more attacks. For example, if a family member is killed because of their faith, the survivors might decide to keep silent about the circumstances of the killing to avoid provoking any further attacks.
Other incidents go unreported and never reach the public consciousness because no one really knows about it; or the incident is simply not considered worth reporting; or media coverage is deliberately blocked or distorted; or media coverage is not deliberately blocked, but the information somehow gets lost; or the incidents are deliberately not reported widely for security reasons (e.g. for the protection of local church leaders).
Pakistan was part of India, and a majority-Hindu nation before the Islamization that started in the seventh century with the invading Muslim armies. Today, Pakistan is a chilling example of how non-Muslim girls and women are treated. Their liberty and dignity are confiscated. They live in fear and pain under Islamic rule. Democracies should take note of Pakistan and always do what is necessary to preserve their cultural identity, their sovereignty and freedom. They should never allow Islamists the right to impose their mores and laws. Pakistan, a hell on earth for non-Muslim women, is already a regressive enough example.
Uzay Bulut is a Turkey-born journalist formerly based in Ankara.
Whom ever called Islam the Religion of Peace has Sawdust for Brains and walks around wearing Rose Colored Glasses with their Head in the Clouds
I agree. But most earthly peace is achieved by bloodshed, human beings being what they are.
True. All violence is not wrong. Sometimes, violence is THE only correct response. America won over Fascism, Communism, and NAZIsm using violence. Good catch.
It’s perfectly peaceful once you convert, submit, and obey.
“We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”
Gee, that’s exactly you portray your religion of Objectivism
Christian: “We are the Christians. Lower your shields and surrender to us. You have the right to be yourselves and worship in any way you desire, but Christ alone will dictate our laws and civilization, not you. You are welcome to become one of us when you kiss the Son (Psalm 2: 12).
Objectivist: “We are objectivist. Lower your shields and surrender yourselves to our superior reason. We will claim your biological, technological and moral distinctiveness as our own. You will be considered unreasoning animals to the extent you do not worship Ayn Rand, and your rights will be both given and taken away by us, because there is no god but reason as we define it.”
Or their heads are elsewhere…..
All Western nations should cut off all diplomatic relations with Pakistan and bar all Mohammedans from entering Christian nations. This is the typically Satanic fruit of Islam. Jesus Christ the Son of God is the Creator of the Universe as well as the Judge of fallen mankind, and someday these wicked child rapists will be down in Hell with that other child rapist, the false prophet and mass killer Mohammed.
In the meantime, women and girls should learn to survive in this house of horrors waiting for their savior?
Is it not the case that your savior is the head and men who are believers fall directly under him? What would he say to the overwhelming passivity of his followers allowing such a desecration of the most vulnerable in his flock?
A couple of days ago FPM had an article that featured videos of German women being followed and harassed on the street by Muslim black men.
I wonder how many of them are Paki. They all seem to think they can ask for dates and a kiss and they expect the women to comply.
In addition the grooming gangs in Britain are also Muslim based. Kids are kidnapped with impunity, killed or trafficked. The idiot governments in do nothing. When does the revolt against this crap finally begin.
It would seem that this disgusting behavior is endemic to Islam. Is it in the Koran?
If you can’t get a gun, which you can’t in England and Germany, knives will do. Learn to use them. It may save your life. We already know that Muslim men are mostly armed with knives and have used them to kill Germans and Brits.
I’m sick of this sh*t. I haven’t heard of this behavior happening to any great extent here in the States……………….yet.
Intrepid: Yes, it’s in the Koran. For example, in 4:34 ff: “Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts (i.e. wear hijabs, burkhas, nikabs, chadors, etc.) because Allah has guarded them.”
In other words, uncovered women are sluts, and “asking for it,” so to speak. A prominent Muslim cleric (I forget who) recently likened non-Muslim uncovered women to uncovered meat, luring cats to a tasty meal. Muslim males are deemed not responsible for having unchecked desires to pounce upon vulnerable women, who, by remaining uncovered, render themselves subject to deserved sexual attacks.
And then there is the Koranic justification for sex slavery, where female captives can be enslaved and raped at will by their Muslim captors (e.g. 33:50). I could go on, but you get the idea.
Islam and its adherents are anathema.
Thank you for clarifying that.
This is why we need to keep our 2nd amendment alive and well. Keep your powder dry and everyone learn to use a firearm. I hope Trump/Homan get all of these terrorists OUT of our country.
Such a charming religion.
My mother’s ELCA church held multi-week classes on the wonderment of islam.
The pasture (intentional) found no time time to visit interns (like my mother).
Yet a muslim? We welcome you…
Idiot. He destroyed his church.
Of course this is on the increase. Isla.m is on a roll. No one is effectively pushing back. Christianity and the West are both paralyzed by indecision and cultural insecurity. The wolves sense weakness.
The silence from the Pope is sickening. If he isn’t going condemn whats going on in the loudest possible voice, he must resign. In his own special way, he’s just another useful idiot.
Over 100 years ago my great grandmother sent my grandmother to the US because the Turks were abducting Armenian girls and putting them into harems. This was in the Van province in northern Turkey. Not long after the Armenian Genocide commenced and 1.5 million Armenians died including my grandfather–another side of the family. Many young women, girls and boys were abducted, raped, put into harems, put into Turkish homes and orphanages. My grandmother traveled to the US at the age of 15 and married my grandfather, a man she had never met before. Thankfully he was a kind man and loved her. they had five children. ISLAM never changes.
It is to be hoped that President Trump will lay the law down regarding the criteria that Pakistan needs to meet in order to get its foreign aid reinstated. As a UK citizen, I have repeatedly asked for our aid to Pakistan to be conditioned on a better human rights performance, but to no avail. I think the idea is that we pay them to stay put (one of their ministers was strongly recommending them to colonise Europe for Islam in 2022).
If these Christian girls will stay true to Christ and never renounce their faith in Jesus Christ, they will have a great reward in heaven.
Let us pray for a massive, nationwide Christian revival in Pakistan. Jesus Christ our Savior is greater than the demon known as “Allah”.