Another Girl, Another Abduction, Another Forced Conversion, Another Child Marriage
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(OPINION) Her Name is Arzoo Raja. She is 13. She belongs to a religious minority group in Pakistan. On October 13, 2020, Arzoo was abducted and this was the end of her life as she knew it. Earlier in the year, I wrote about other Pakistani religious minority girls sharing the same fate. Myra Shehbaz, 14 at the time of abduction. Huma Younus, 14 at the time of abduction. Mehwish, 14. Sana John, 13. Farzana and Sehrish, aged 14 and 16 respectively. Maria Sarfraz, 11. And the list goes on. Indeed, according to the Movement for Solidarity and Peace (MSP), a human rights organization in the country, around 1,000 Christian and Hindu women and girls are kidnapped each year, forced to convert and marry Muslim men. The victims are usually between the ages of 12 and 25. Despite these shocking statistics, the number of victims may be even higher as many cases remain unreported, often due to the girls’ families’ limited financial means.
Allegedly, after Arzoo’s abduction, she was forcibly converted and forcibly married to a man three times her age. Arzoo’s parents reported the crime to the police trying to seek legal recourse and get her back home. However, a few days after doing so, the Sindh Police presented them with a “conversion certificate” to suggest that Arzoo had converted voluntarily. While the voluntary conversion is highly questionable, the document does not deal with the important issue that Arzoo, who is only 13, could not be seen as having converted voluntarily. Indeed, in another case, Nasira v Judicial Magistrate, the Lahore High Court recognized that an under-age girl lacks legal capacity to convert. The Lahore High Court decided that the young girl who was barely 14, “As she is not sui juris she lacks legal capacity to change religion on her own. However, the question of faith being a matter of heart and one’s conviction, no Court can declare her conversion invalid or void. It can only refuse to recognize or give effect to it for certain legal purposes. The Petitioner being the lawful guardian of Pumy Muskan is entitled to her custody. There is no reason to deprive her of that right.”
Arzoo’s parents proceeded to the Sindh High Court. There another issue emerged, that the marriage certificate suggests that she is 18. This was despite the fact that Arzoo’s family had her birth certificate showing she is 13, having been born in July 2007. Allegedly, the judge refused to look at the government registered birth certificate.
Commenting on the case, Ambreen Qureshi, a barrister working on many such cases pro bono, has said “the law on child marriages (the Child Marriages Restraint Act) albeit present, has been totally disregarded. It seems that neither the police nor the judiciary is inclined to recognize it. [Arzoo] has been sent away with the abductor in blatant violation of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, where she is being raped and will continue to be raped until the Court comes to a decision. What kind of justice is this? Protection of the child [in such a case] is the responsibility of the state. Despite having an alarming number of forced conversion cases, no steps have been taken by the government to protect our minorities. I suggest in all such cases of forced conversions/child marriage, the state should, at the very least, take over the custody of the child, keep them at the child protection bureaus which are present in each province until the final decision of the case is made by the court.”
After pressure from campaign groups and a public outcry, on November 2, 2020, Shireen Mazari, Minister for Human Rights in Pakistan, posted on social media that the Sindh High Court has ordered Arzoo to be recovered by police and moved into a shelter home. Arzoo will appear before the court on November 5, 2020, and will have her age determined. The next days will show whether Arzoo and her family will see justice being done.
Many religious minority women and girls in Pakistan who are abducted, forcibly converted, forcibly married and abused by their abductors, continue to be neglected by the police and the justice system. This only allows further crimes to be committed. Pakistan needs to step up its approach in dealing with such cases and ensure proper investigations and prosecutions of the perpetrators and reunification of the children with their parents takes place. However, a change in society is also required so that abduction of a child, forced conversion and forced marriage are considered abhorrent. There is still a long way to go.
Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher and human rights advocate, Ph.D. candidate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of persecution of minorities around the world. This piece was republished from Forbes with permission.