Pakistan: Conversions to Islam and forced marriages
Fr. James Channan.
A report published by the “Movement for Solidarity and Peace”—a coalition of Pakistani associations and NGO’s—indicates that around 1,000 young Christian and Hindu women in Pakistan are abducted each year, “converted” and compelled to contract an Islamic marriage. According to a dispatch of the news agency Fides published on April 9, 700 cases concern Christian women and 300 Hindus, but no formal complaint is made in many cases and they remain uncounted.
The report cites the examples of young Christian women chiefly in Pendjab. Most of these are young women between the ages of 12 and 25, belonging to poor families in disadvantaged areas. Those who complain often run into law enforcement or the threats of the relatives of the abductors. In the rare cases that are brought to trial, the young women, intimidated and violated, declare that they had converted and married freely, which closes the case. “In the custody of their abductor, the young woman may endure sexual violence, forced prostitution, beatings and domestic abuse, or else be the victim of human trafficking,” the document emphasizes. Interviewed by Fides, Fr. James Channan, a Pakistani Dominican priest, stated that “the phenomenon is actually very alarming and worrisome for Christians and Hindus who feel very unsafe and very vulnerable. In Pakistan, they suffer social, religious and political discrimination that is constantly getting worse.”
(Sources: apic/fides – DICI no. 295 dated April 25, 2014)
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