20 JUNE 2025 – WASHINGTON, D.C | Last week, Jubilee Campaign was privileged to co-host the congressional briefing, “Gendered Persecution: Targets of Forced Conversion” alongside our partners, Coptic Solidarity and Canadian Yazidi Association. This relevant and timely event emphasized the plight of faith minority women and girls in Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, and the MENA region, where gendered persecution remains entrenched. Our esteemed speakers shed light on the tragic cycle of abduction, child marriage, and the misuse of forced faith conversion to cover up the heinous crime of stealing girls’ childhoods and adolescence. Expert panelists from all organizations, as well as Congressman Brad Sherman representing California’s 32nd District, Congressman Jim McGovern representing Massachusetts’ 2nd District, and Stephen Schneck, Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), spoke on the gravity of gendered persecution and excoriated governments for failing to eliminate such a horrible atrocity of CEFM (child, early and forced marriage). Other distinguished speakers included author Sonja Dahlmans, Coptic survivor of persecution Christine, Yazidi activist Jamileh Naso, and Jubilee Campaign’s own Joseph Janssen. The event was moderated by Karmella Borashan, Director of Susek Evangelistic Association and representative of Assyrian International Council.
Prior to the event, representatives from Jubilee Campaign, Coptic Solidarity, and Canadian Yazidi Association met with members of Congress to bring further awareness to the plight of religious women worldwide and to implore them, as figureheads of American foreign policy, to hold the governments of Egypt, Pakistan, and Iraq accountable. We were welcomed by the legislative aides for the offices of Senator Chris Murphy, Senator Jamie Raskin, and Senator James Lankford.
During our congressional briefing held in a packed room on Longworth House Office Building’s fifth floor, USCIRF Chair Stephen Schneck emphasized that women and girls are among the most susceptible populations in times of conflict, a vulnerability further compounded when they are members of faith minority communities.
Chair Schneck specifically affirmed US efforts to uplift women, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship laws, the unlawful ban on headscarves in France, and the impactful ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement which commenced in the aftermath of the custodial death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who was arrested in 2022 by morality police for resisting the mandatory hijab policy. The movement subsequently materialized in other nations where women are subjected to structural discrimination and gender-based violence. Chair Schneck reaffirmed USCIRF’s commitment to hold countries of particular concern – designated by the Commission for their egregious violations of religious freedom – accountable.
Panelist Sonja Dahlmans, author of Hidden Crimes, Public Deception: The Epidemic of Abduction and Forced Disappearance of Coptic Women and Girls, confirmed that “what the Copts have been telling us is true and has been happening for decades”. Dahlmans narrated how Egyptian authorities privately deny justice for the families of stolen and missing girls while simultaneously projecting a façade of a government making improvements in women’s rights. She distinguished the difference between public female empowerment – which is a mere farce in Egypt – and the ‘hidden crimes’ that occur behind the scenes and are brushed under the rug. Unfortunately, Dahlmans observed, well known human rights watchdogs report about gender-based violence in Egypt but neglect the unique vulnerabilities and abuses faced by Copts. In many faith communities wherein a women’s virtue and purity are viewed as benchmarks for the entire groups’ pious reputation, CEFM – and associated violations such as sexual violence – exposes survivors to additional negative stigma from their own communities when they are rescued and rehabilitated.
Coptic woman Christine testified to her experience of forced religious conversion and sexual abuse. As a member of the Egyptian national fencing team when she was a teenager, Christine was assaulted by her coach. This crime, however, was just the start of a tragic series of events; Christine’s abuser subsequently falsified her documents to fabricate a new identity for her as a Muslim girl with an entirely unfamiliar name. Despite changing her residential address and phone number, Christine was relentlessly contacted and continually harassed by her abuser.
Jamileh Naso, Co-Founder and President of Canadian Yazidi Association, spoke about the Yazidi women and girls in Iraq who, for more than a decade – since the 2014 genocide – have been and continue to be systematically erased from their indigenous homeland and victimized by intergenerational sexual violence and ethnic cleansing. Naso asserts that the Yazidi Survivors Law, which claims to reintegrate Yazidis and offer reparations, has in reality failed to deliver on its promises. Nearly 3,000 Yazidi women and girls remain missing, having been captive to ISIS fighters for more than a decade, “passed from ISIS soldier to soldier as an object, [and] forced to give birth to Muslim children”. Naso finished her compelling presentation with a call to action: “The question is not whether we know what is happening; we do. The question is if we will act.”
Joseph Janssen, Founder of Voice for Justice and advocate with Jubilee Campaign Netherlands, echoed many of the same sentiments regarding the onslaught of abuses against Christian and Hindu girls in Pakistan who continue to be abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and married off to Muslim men twice their age. Janssen emphasizes that faith minority girls are a prime target for CEFM, because radical Muslim society, police, and courts will side with perpetrators. Abusers exploit Sharia principles – which allow the marriage of underage girls who have experienced their first menstrual cycle – by converting their victims to Islam to justify their crime of child marriage. Fraudulent birth certificates, conversion, and marriage certificates are accepted without question by courts while documentation of underage status and minority faith are overlooked. Janssen raised a poignant absurdity: if underage girls are ineligible to get an ID card or driver’s license, vote, and open bank accounts, “how can their ‘consent’ to faith conversion and marriage to men twice their age be accepted without scrutiny?”
The spirit of the event was summarized in a single declaration by Congressman Sherman: “for anyone to have religious freedom, everyone must have religious freedom”. Panelists were then asked what actions should be undertaken to protect the rights of faith minority women and girls. Speaking on behalf of Copts, Dahlmans emphasized that gender-based persecution is an aspect of genocide, and treating it as such is a step in the right direction to end impunity and achieve justice. Representing the Yazidi community in Iraq, Naso stressed that missing women and girls must be recovered, the 2021 Yazidi Survivors Law must be implemented, and the community should be included in all transformative peace talks. Finally, with regards to Pakistan, Janssen urged nations across the world to pressure Pakistan to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 years and make all aid to Pakistan contingent upon substantial improvements in human rights and religious freedom.