Abducted, converted, forced to marry: Pakistan’s minority girls face systematic abuse
Washington, Sep 19 (IANS) Minority women and girls in Pakistan continue to face grave persecution, with Christian and Hindu girls among those abducted, sexually assaulted, forcibly converted and forced to marry their abductors, according to a latest report.
Citing the ‘Stolen Girls’ study, unveiled on July 14 at the European Parliament by human rights organisations Voice for Justice and Jubilee Campaign, Turkish journalist Uzay Bulut spotlighted that 210 verified cases of abduction, forced religious conversion, child marriage and sexual violence involving Christian and other minority girls were documented between 2019 and 2025.
“Of the 210 documented cases, more than 83 per cent of the victims were younger than 18. The report identified 134 victims between the ages of 14 and 17 (63.8 per cent), 41 younger than 14 (19.5 per cent), and 35 adults over 18 (16.7 per cent). The study found that the average victim was 12.8 years old, while the average perpetrator was 35.8 years old, creating an average age gap of 23 years. In several documented cases, the age difference exceeded 30 years,” Bulut wrote in American media outlet ‘PJ Media’.
Referring to the findings, she said that “such abuses were not isolated criminal acts, but rather part of a widespread pattern enabled by fraudulent documentation, legal manipulation, and institutional failures that allow perpetrators to evade accountability.”
Among the cases documented in the study is that of Amber Nadeem, a 13-year-old Christian girl from Pakistan’s Faisalabad, who was abducted on June 12, 2026, allegedly by Mohsin Liaquat, a Muslim man, PJ Media reported.
Following her recovery, Amber told a Judicial Magistrate that the accused’s family had pressured and coached her into stating that she was an adult, had converted to Islam of her own free will, and had married him voluntarily.
Despite the Magistrate ordering an age assessment and placing Amber in a shelter, a Faisalabad court later handed her over to the accused and granted him bail, it noted
In an interview with PJ Media, Joseph Janssen, the chairman of the Voice for Justice, said that Amber Nadeem’s case exposes Pakistan’s alarming failure to protect minority girls from abduction, forced conversion and child marriage.
Highlighting the plight of minority girls, he said, “Christian and Hindu girls in Pakistan continue to be abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married to their abductors, in some cases, with police and the judiciary failing to protect victims and facilitating the process.”
Janssen urged the European Union and the United States government to pursue a zero-tolerance policy towards the abduction, forced religious conversion and child marriage of minority girls in Pakistan.
He argued that such abuses should not be dismissed as individual criminal incidents or matters of domestic concern, as they reflect deeper institutional failures to protect vulnerable children and religious minorities.
“There must be clear consequences when minority girls are abducted, forcibly converted and married against their will. The EU and US must make the protection of these children a clear condition of their engagement with Pakistan and demand measurable action, accountability and effective enforcement from Pakistani authorities,” PJ Media quoted Janssen as saying.
–IANS
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