Today, Christos Stylianides set to leave role as Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU, after less than five months in the role.
Continue readingForcibly-married 14-year-old Maira hopes for Easter miracle
Maira* loved to sing hymns at her church’s Easter service. This Easter, she is forced to hide rather than be able to join in celebrations. She had been abducted, forcibly married to a much older Muslim man, and must now wait in hiding after escaping. Forced “conversion” through marriage affects an estimated 1,000 girls from religious minorities in Pakistan every year.
Continue readingOn International Women’s Day, 14-year-old survivor Maira hopes for freedom
This International Women’s Day, Christian girls in Pakistan fear for their safety. Maira Shabaz knows the dangerous reality more than most. She escaped her captor – but not before he brutalised, blackmailed, married and forcibly “converted” her from her Christian faith.
Continue readingAbduction, rape, blackmail: A Pakistani teenager’s fight for justice
In Pakistan, a fourteen-year-old girl and her family were forced into hiding after she escaped her abductor who forcibly married her. She escaped and gave a statement to the court saying she was abused and blackmailed.
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