The Hidden Crisis of Forced Marriage and Religious Conversion Among Christian Girls
In Pakistan, hundreds of girls from Christian families (and other religious minorities) are abducted from their families each year, forced to convert to Islam, and married off against their will. They need your help.
Background
Since 2019, the ADF International team in Asia has supported a total of 52 cases in Pakistan — including 14 Christian minor girls freed from the horrors of sexual slavery and forced conversion.
These girls were rescued from forced and sham marriages, where they endured physical, sexual and emotional abuse and were coerced into converting to Islam and renouncing their Christian faith.
Forced religious conversion is often used as a loophole to shield abductors from prosecution. Once a girl is coerced into converting to Islam, her abductor can falsely claim the marriage was lawful — even if she’s still a child.
Pakistan has signed international treaties meant to protect human rights. Despite these legal protections on paper, the justice system often fails these girls.
Courts are often reluctant to intervene, allegedly due to pressure from Islamist groups, and families are discouraged from reporting these crimes.
And even when cases are reported, legal loopholes and inconsistent enforcement leave these girls unprotected and their abductors unpunished.
This is more than a legal issue — it’s a human rights crisis robbing young Christian girls of the childhoods they deserve. According to UNICEF, 100 million girls worldwide are at risk of child marriage this decade.
They need our urgent action — and they deserve our protection.
Their Stories of Survival
Given away at 11
Given away at 11
At just 11 years old, Shahida was robbed of her childhood, her freedom, and her faith.
After her mother eloped with a Muslim man in Pakistan, Shahida was “given” to his brother, who later forced her into an Islamic marriage.
Over the years, she endured unimaginable abuse, bore two children, and was coerced into converting to Islam just so her captor could evade Pakistan’s anti-child marriage laws.
But thanks to a recent court ruling, Shahida is finally free. We were honoured to coordinate her defence alongside our allied lawyers in Pakistan.
Her forced conversion and marriage have been annulled. And she has been issued new identity documents correctly listing her faith as Christian.
The victory in Shahida’s case comes as human rights leaders from across the globe are turning their attention to Pakistan’s egregious human rights violations.
Shahida Bibi
Reeha Saleem
“They told me they would burn my face with acid if I didn’t do as they said”
Reeha — a17-year-old Christian girl — was abducted by her Muslim neighbour and his three friends while on her way back home from school.
The four men took her to an unknown location and forced her thumbprints on a piece of paper. They told her they would burn her face with acid if she didn’t comply.
She was forced into marrying one of them, kept in captivity, raped, and beaten up by her abductors for over two months.
Thankfully, she managed to flee captivity through a door accidentally left unlocked.
This, however, was not the end of Reeha’s plight. To this day, there are constant threats hurled at her single mother and younger brother by her abductors.
We have intervened in the case and are supporting Reeha’s lawyer in her efforts to annul Reeha’s Islamic marriage.
Kidnapped and forced to put fingerprints on ID papers
At 16 years old, Saba was bundled into a car at gunpoint by three men.
The men took her to an unknown place and locked her in a room where she was subjected to physical and mental torture for nearly 20 days.
She was raped and forced to convert from Christianity to Islam and marry one of her abductors (Asif) after he forcefully obtained her thumbprints.
One day, Saba managed to escape. But when she reached her parents’ house, they reluctantly allowed her back because they were afraid.
They had received persistent threats from Saba’s abductor and were also scared of being shamed in society which views victims of sexual abuse as unclean and even complicit.
Saba then moved in with a relative who arranged a meeting with a Christian lawyer on the ground. The lawyer got the illegal marriage dissolved from the courts in January 2022. We coordinated Saba’s legal defence, and now she is finally able to begin her journey of healing and restoration.
Saba Sattar
How You Can Help
The ADF International team in Asia is committed to fighting for girls like Shahida, Reeha, and Saba, with the goal of harnessing the legal system to effectively prevent the dual human rights abuses of forced marriage and forced conversion. But we cannot do it without your support.
Tragically, there are many more girls like them.
Your gift helps provide legal defence, advocacy, and hope to girls from Christian homes trapped in these horrific situations.
Each legal defence requires between 3,000 and 5,000 USD in legal fees and costs to secure justice.
Your gift can:
- Fund legal defence for an at-risk girl
- Support rescue operations and reunification
- Drive advocacy at the highest levels of government and law to end these crimes.
No child should be forced to marry. No Christian should be forced to abandon their faith. Let’s stand together to end these abuses — and restore dignity and freedom to the most vulnerable.
While these forced conversion and marriage abuses happen across the globe, they are especially prevalent in Pakistan. In coordination with our allied lawyers in the country, we are taking every step possible to prevent these situations from occurring. The government has an opportunity to make a difference, and they should start by implementing a uniform age for marriage to prevent these forced kidnappings and marriages from happening in the first place.
Tehmina Arora
Director of Advocacy, Asia for ADF International
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