World News | Women from ethnic minorities live in fear as forced conversions, marriages continue in Pakistan: Report

Islamabad [Pakistan]Dec 29 (ANI): Hindu and Christian families have been fearful of their daughters being snatched from a surge in cases of forced conversions and marriages in Pakistan, the International Forum on Rights and Society (IFFRAS) reported.

This month, the British government imposed sanctions on its Muslim cleric Mian Abdul Haq, accusing him of forcing conversions and marriages of girls and women from religious minorities, but such cases do not appear to have affected the Pakistani government either.

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There are frequent cases of forced marriages and conversions, which are eventually abandoned.

Most recently, on December 10, the Ministry of Justice (VoJ) released a report stating that there were 100 cases of kidnapping, rape and forced conversion to Islam of Christian girls between 2019 and 2022. However, the report does not mention Hindu and Sikh girls whose cases are reported almost every month. In Sindh province, even the parents of young boys fear they will be kidnapped for forced conversion, according to IFFRAS.

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Recently, a 13-year-old Hindu underage girl was abducted from her home by a man named Arshad Ali in Karachi, Sindh province.

Karachi police have registered the FIR but so far no one has been arrested in connection with the incident. According to the underage girl’s family, Arshad Ali has been harassing her for the past year and a half and has made numerous police reports. The family feared the girl would be forced to convert to Islam and marry Arshad Ali, according to local media reports.

The report, titled “Conversion without consent,” speaks of an increase in violence against non-Muslim women, while the state remains indifferent and the judicial system is in most cases unable to deliver justice in a timely manner.

According to the IFFRAS report, which reviewed 100 reported cases involving the abduction, forced conversion and forced and child marriage of girls and women in Christian communities across Pakistan.

The province with the highest number of such cases is Punjab with 86%, Sindh with 11%, Islamabad with 2%, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 1%, and Balochistan with none.

VoJ President Joseph Jensen said the forced conversions were linked to the state’s gross failure to implement and enforce existing laws against kidnapping, child and forced marriages.

He further said in a statement that crimes of sexual violence against underage minority girls under the guise of religious conversion and marriage go unchecked.

He observed that forced conversions were linked to the state’s gross failure to implement and enforce existing laws aimed at preventing kidnapping, child marriage, and forced marriage, especially when the victims were from religious minorities.

The VoJ report noted mob violence against minorities in the name of religion. The most terrifying of these is the use of blasphemy laws against them. Leaders of human rights groups have protested the abuse of these laws and called for their review.

Annigje Buwalda, executive director of the Jubilee Campaign, said the report analyzed and investigated the intersection of the intersectional vulnerabilities of minority girls and their families, exploitable legal loopholes and irreconcilable court decisions that make vulnerable It is difficult for religious minority communities to accept protecting themselves under IFFRAS.

She added that the report will serve as an important tool to further galvanize action to eradicate forced conversion and child marriage in Pakistan and promote children’s rights.

According to the VFJ report, Pakistan has reported a number of cases in which teenage girls, mainly from religious minorities, are abducted, forced to convert to Islam, and married to Muslim men, often as perpetrators of kidnappings.

The report noted a strong correlation between reports of forced conversions and child marriage.

“The lack of legislation to address forced conversions, and the lack of enforcement of existing domestic laws, has mostly manipulated the legal and judicial system to get away with perpetrators; this remains a major obstacle to preventing this harmful and inhumane practice,” the report said. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)