Pakistan: Kidnapping, Forced Marriages, Forced Conversion
by Uzay Bulut • July 13, 2023 at 5:00 am
Imagine if you are a child from a persecuted religious minority living in one of the world's most oppressive countries. The country's majority culture and institutions are largely shaped by a religious ideology that has no regard for anything outside that system, as well as a record of mistreating women and girls.
Sadly, the government of Pakistan appears complicit in these and other crimes: it fails to provide women and children with required legal protection. A bill to criminalize forced religious conversions has been presented in the Sindh Assembly at least three times (2016, 2019 and 2021). Each time, it was rejected.
Any military or economic cooperation with Pakistan should be conditioned on Pakistan's improvement of human rights and liberties for minorities, and a respect for international law. A government that is complicit in the abduction, forced religious conversion, sexual abuse and coerced "marriages" of minority children should not be considered qualified to benefit from any aid or cooperation from the West.
Imagine if you are a child from a persecuted religious minority living in one of the world's most oppressive countries. The country's majority culture and institutions are largely shaped by a religious ideology that has no regard for anything outside that system, as well as a record of mistreating women and girls.
Every day you run the risk of being kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam, raped, and coerced into a "marriage" with an older or elderly man. This is what takes place often in Islamic Pakistan. The victims are Christian and Hindu women and children.
On June 2, 2023, a 14-year-old Hindu girl, Sohana Sharma Kumari, was abducted and married to a Muslim man, WioNews reported :
"In yet another abduct-and-convert case from Pakistan, a Hindu girl from the country's Sindh province was forcibly converted to Islam and married off, her father said. The 14-year-old girl, identified as Sohana, was kidnapped by her tutor, Akhtar and his accomplices...
