Pakistan: Christian minor girl abducted, raped & coercively converted to Islam

Kotli Bahram, Sialkot-
A Christian 16 years old girl Benish Anwar was abducted & raped by an Islamist. The terrified girl was then forcibly converted to Islam and pushed into forced nikah with her Islamist abductor. This tragic incident reflects the alarming vulnerability of women of all ages, who belong to the religious minorities in Pakistan and face such atrocities with no hope for justice or retribution.

Rapes, abductions and coerced conversions of young girls and women belonging to religious minorities are an undeniable reality in Islamist Pakistan. Victims, regardless of their age, are targetted and forced into nikah contract marriages (nikah), stripping them of their dignity and self-respect. The perpetrators act with total impunity, exploiting societal biases and institutional indifference. Families, who even dare to think of getting justice for their victimized women, face all sorts of harassment and death threats.

The exponentially increasing number of such cases highlights the systemic failure of Islamic Pakistan in protecting their religious minorities. Despite constitutional gaurantee, as promised by the first PM of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, state mechanisms like police and judiciary lay in cahoots with the perpetrators or prefer to be inactive. Such a complacent society perpetuates permanent fear among the religious minority communities in Islamic Pakistan.

Disclaimer: Due to state restrictions in Pakistan, independent follow-ups on such incidents are challenging.