In Pakistan, Christian girls are raped, kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam and marry men much older than them on a daily basis. If the abductors are prosecuted, the court usually rules in favor of the Muslim men, and the families have no chance of getting their daughters back, who in many cases are not even ten years old.

96 percent of Pakistan's population is Muslim, with Christians and Hindus making up less than 2 percent of the population. That is why the members of the two minority religions suffer serious persecution in almost all areas of life. Moreover, Christian and Hindu women are doubly disadvantaged, since according to Islamic traditions, as women, they have fewer rights than men, and as non-Islamic believers, they are deprived of almost all their basic rights.

As for marriages, it is no secret that their purpose is to suppress Christianity and Hinduism and strengthen Islam. For example, it is unthinkable for a Christian man to enter into a monogamous marriage with a Muslim woman, but many Muslim men choose Christian women for their harems. Of course, Christian women do not desire such a marriage, so men resort to violence in most cases.

In recent years, it has become an increasingly common practice for adult Muslim men to rape, kidnap, and force underage girls to convert and marry. According to a December 2020 figure, a thousand Christian and Hindu girls are kidnapped and forced into marriage every year. Unfortunately, although we don't have specific data on it, this number has probably only increased since then. The English-language news portal S4C.News reports on a daily basis about young girls who are forcibly abducted by their own teachers, neighbors or even family friends and held captive for months.

It is not enough that these girls are minors, but in many cases they do not even reach the age of ten. Thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds are considered old among them.

One of the most outstanding cases is that of an eight-year-old girl who was accosted by a middle-aged man on the street in August this year. He asked her to go up to him and help him get something out from under his bed because he couldn't climb in to get it. The girl sensed the man's bad intentions, but it was so strong that she could not do anything else, she went upstairs with him. As soon as they entered the apartment, the man's intentions became clear, and the little girl had no chance to escape.

Also this summer, a preschool girl was raped by a teacher while her older brother, who was a few years older, was waiting outside, having no idea what was going on in one of the halls of the institution. There was also a girl who became pregnant after the violence and was detained until she gave birth to the child. After that, he had no chance to go back to his family.

Muslim men often attack the girls not alone, but in groups, and in more than one case they all rape them before "converting" them and marrying one of them.

Perhaps the saddest thing is that in most cases the justice system also decides in favor of the rapists. The police and the courts prefer to listen to Muslims rather than Christians or Hindus. If the case goes to court, most of the girls are judged as kidnappers after the hearing, and the families lose their children for good. Of course, the court must justify the verdict in every case. One of the main reasons is the existence of the marriage certificate, which can be used to state that the girl has agreed to the marriage. However, the girls are always forced to sign them, which of course cannot be proven afterwards. It also often happens, in the case of girls who are too young, that they are listed as 4-5 years older in the marriage certificate. In such cases, in most cases, the court considers these documents to be valid instead of the birth certificate or birth certificate. Finally, if a marriage does not take place, a Christian man may be held accountable. With this, Christian families are pitted against each other, and instead of one Christian family, they can destroy two. In the case of a fourteen-year-old girl, for example, after her teacher raped her, one of her classmates was blamed. Since the teachers all testified against him, he didn't stand a chance in court.

These cases have become so commonplace that we don't even know about most of them anymore. the S4C.News website and in the Stop Persecution of Christians Facebook group.

Ildikó Ungvári / vasarnap.hu

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