Gulshan Dadan Khan Mosque in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (Khalid Mahmood, Artistic Commons)
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Day by day Worldwide–Morning Star Information) – Relations of a 21-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan who disappeared from her residence on Nov. 17 mentioned they’re heartbroken and fearful after she resurfaced in courtroom claiming she had transformed to Islam and married her Muslim neighbor.
Monica Jennifer’s brother mentioned he believes she was blackmailed and coerced into abandoning her Christian religion and household.
“She was a spirit-filled Christian woman, dedicated to her religion,” mentioned Raza Arif, 27, of Rawalpindi, Punjab Province. “There isn’t any approach she would willingly select to go away her residence, her faith and her household with out stress.”
Arif mentioned Muslim neighbor Waleed Ahmad kidnapped her and manipulated and blackmailed her till she felt she had no alternative however to go away.
When Jennifer didn’t return residence from work on Nov. 17, kin instantly reported her disappearance to police that night, mentioned Arif, a Pentecostal evangelist whose father is employed as a sanitation employee.
“However as a substitute of registering our grievance, they advised us to return the following morning,” Arif advised Christian Day by day Worldwide-Morning Star Information. “Our First Data Report [FIR] was registered on Nov. 23 solely after some rights activists intervened, giving the accused ample time to marry Monica after forcibly altering her religion.”
Inordinate delay in police motion displays systemic discrimination confronted by Christians and different susceptible minorities in Pakistan, minority rights activists say.
Arif mentioned that Jennifer’s assertion in courtroom that she had transformed to Islam and married Ahmad of her personal free will was made beneath stress.
“My sister was groomed for months,” he mentioned. “She was not ready to talk freely. We consider she continues to be beneath menace.”
Ahmad’s kin have warned the Christian household to cease pursuing the case, threatening to register a blasphemy grievance in opposition to them in the event that they proceed difficult the wedding or in search of Jennifer’s return, Arif mentioned.
“My aged dad and mom are terrified, however now we have not stopped our efforts to get better her,” he mentioned.
With the assist of some native rights teams, the household has filed an utility with the Supreme Court docket-mandated One Man Fee for Minorities, Shoaib Suddle, to direct police to take motion on their grievance.
“Monica is a sufferer of a sham marriage,” Arif mentioned, including that Ahmad fabricated her Nikahnama (marriage certificates) to guard him from authorized motion. “The doc doesn’t comprise Ahmad’s nationwide id card quantity, and the signatures of the Nikah Khawan (marriage registrar) may even show to be pretend if the police carried out a good inquiry.”
Rights defenders be aware that Jennifer’s case suits a long-standing sample in Pakistan by which Christian and Hindu women, typically from impoverished households, vanish instantly and later reappear asserting they’ve transformed and married of their very own free will. Households continuously allege abduction, coercion and grooming however are sometimes too afraid to demand justice.
“As soon as minority women are declared Muslim, they’re typically warned that leaving Islam would make them apostates – a label that may result in focused violence,” mentioned Katherine Sapna, who works with Christian survivors of pressured conversion and compelled marriage. “These threats lure women in marriages they didn’t freely select and go away them susceptible to lifelong abuse in what will also be described as sexual slavery masked as marriage.”
Authorized specialists emphasize that real conversion requires free, knowledgeable and pressure-free consent, situations not often met in such circumstances.
“A younger girl’s capacity to talk freely is severely compromised when abductors are bodily current or not directly controlling her atmosphere,” mentioned Christian legal professional Lazar Allah Rakha. “The concern of being accused of apostasy prevents many ladies from ever returning residence.”
No less than 421 circumstances of forcibly transformed and married women have been reported between January 2021 and December 2024 in Pakistan, based on the Annual Human Rights Observer report issued by Lahore-based analysis and advocacy group, Middle for Social Justice. The victims included 282 Hindu women, 137 Christian women and two Sikh women; 71 p.c of the victims have been minors, of whom 22 p.c have been beneath the age of 14, and 49 p.c have been between the ages of 14 and 18.
Solely 13 p.c of victims have been adults, and the ages of 16 p.c remained unverified. The report added that the overwhelming majority of circumstances, 69 p.c, occurred in Sindh Province, adopted by 30 p.c in Punjab Province.
Arif mentioned the household needs nothing greater than to satisfy her in a secure, impartial setting the place she will be able to communicate with out intimidation.
“We simply need our sister to be protected,” he mentioned, his voice breaking. “She is aware of her household loves her. We wish her to know she will be able to come residence with out concern.”
Pakistan, whose inhabitants is greater than 96 p.c Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doorways’ 2025 World Watch Record of essentially the most troublesome locations to be a Christian.
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