Lahore, September 14, 2024 – Pakistani human rights defender, Joseph Jansen, Chairperson of Voice for Justice, expresses grave concern over the impunity surrounding the child marriage and coerced conversion of 14-year-old Shifa Rafaqat taken from her home in Sheikhupura on November 27, 2023. This case is a stark example of the wider problem affecting an alarming amount of Christian minor girls who are being abducted or lured away with little to no action by the state.
The 142nd session of the Human Rights Committee will be held from 14 October to 8 November 2024 in Geneva, Pakistan is up for review. The Government of Pakistan in its May 2024 response in preparation for the session said that it takes a “proactive approach in eliminating all forms of violence against women including [….] early and forced marriages, forced conversions, kidnapping and abduction,” the reality on the ground however, tells a different story.
“Your daughter will never return to you, Inshallah [if God wills],” was the response the police officer gave when the father of 14-year-old missing Shifa approached the Sheikhupura Police station. This showcases that the police officer saw it as his religious duty to facilitate the conversion and child marriage of this Christian girl, Joseph Jansen explains. Seeking justice for this abducted Christian girl is equated with challenging the state religion itself, by championing her exit from the state religion [albeit coerced] , and can itself be punishable under Pakistan’s severe criminal laws, intolerant to religious discussion of Islam or questioning of belief.
During the court proceedings in Shifa’s case, her perpetrator/”husband” presented a conversion and marriage certificate claiming that she was 18 years old, despite her government-issued birth certificate clearly indicating that she was only 14 years old. This is unfortunately not an anomaly, Jansen explains, in the joint report by Jubilee Campaign and Voice for Justice, it describes how the perpetrator will often use forged documents, sometimes with the assistance or blind eye of the state and religious authorities. On the marriage certificate of Shifa, the name of Hafiz Fazal Dad Khan Chishti was mentioned as the Nikkah Khawan (cleric who solemnized the marriage). However, upon inquiry, Hafiz Fazal denied officiating or recording the marriage, indicating that the document was fabricated.
The ongoing case of Shifa Rafaqat, a 14-year-old student taken from her home in Sheikhupura on November 27, 2023, underscores Pakistan’s alarming failure to prevent child marriages and sexual exploitation of minor girls. Shifa was abducted by a neighbor, Najma Liaquat, and was later converted to Islam and married to 48-year-old Syed Shabbar Ali Gillani. Despite an FIR (No. 1967/23) filed under Section 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), authorities have yet to recover the minor girl, highlighting severe inefficiencies in addressing these human rights violations, Jansen shared. In addition, multiple testimonies from the neighbourhood reported how the group involved in her abduction are operating a brothel. Despite numerous complaints being filed at the police station, authorities have been reluctant to investigate the matter.
“Despite numerous complaints being filed at the police station […] authorities have been reluctant to investigate the matter.“
Jansen estimates that around 25% of cases of child marriage and coerced conversion start as abduction cases, such as Shifa’s. Jansen explains that girls typically between 11-15 years old are being abducted, converted to Islam and married. If they are required to testify in court, they are subjected to heavy intimidation and threats, pressuring them to provide a statement favorable to the abductor. The remaining 75% of cases involve a pattern of entrapment, often referred to as a “honey trap,” where young girls, typically between the ages of 11 and 15, are often seduced and lured with promises of a better life and material gifts, “They willingly go with the abductors, convert to Islam, and enter into marriage. After these acts they are trapped and the abuse starts.”
“The remaining 75% of cases involve a pattern of entrapment, often referred to as a ‘honey trap,’ where young girls, typically between the ages of 11 and 15, are often seduced and lured with promises of a better life and material gifts.”
The term “marriage” is misleading, the intent of the perpetrators is not to take these girls as actual wives but to sexually exploit them until they are no more of use. “Christian young girls often only realize the severity of their situation after they are already trapped, making it too late to escape,” Jansen says. The abducted or groomed girls are usually physically and sexually abused by one or multiple men, some are forced into prostitution or even sold as sex slaves within Pakistan or abroad. “There are numerous accounts of girls stating they were in the process of being sold to China or Gulf countries by their so called ‘husband’ and his family,” Jansen explains. But girls are also often forced into prostitution within Pakistan and are abused by their ‘husband’ and his friends and family members.” Once they are no longer deemed useful, after a few months or years, they are sent back to their families,” Joseph says distraughtly, “In both cases, the police are not aiding the girls but rather facilitating the conversions and marriages, leaving Christian parents devastated and without any hope of reclaiming their daughter.”
In the case of 14 year old Shifa, human rights activist Anosh Waseem points out that despite the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) sending multiple communications to police authorities, including the DPO Sheikhupura and IG Police Punjab, no action has been taken to recover her. “This reflects a troubling indifference toward the plight of minority girls and highlights the need for a more committed approach to justice,” Anosh says.
Punjab Assembly’s standing committee opposed the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Bill, 2024, which proposed setting the legal marriage age at 18 and imposing penalties for those facilitating child marriages. This opposition disregards the Federal Shariat Court’s 2021 ruling affirming that a minimum marriage age is not un-Islamic.
The Government of Pakistan must do more to strengthen the legal and administrative frameworks to prevent and protect underage girls from forced marriages and conversions and the gruesome treatment which occurs during and after, which often amounts to torture. The upcoming Human Rights Committee review in October 2024 is a good deadline to aim for these changes, for the women and girls however, who are survivors and victims, the help cannot come too soon.
[IMAGE: User:Zscout370, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]
