Pakistan: Girls as young as ten years of age and young women from minority and often marginalised communities in Pakistan, such as the Christian, Hindu and Sikh communities are abducted, raped, forcefully converted to Islam and forcefully ‘married’.

Modus operandi: Following their abduction, the girls are raped and then pressurised to undergo a conversion ceremony conducted by male priests whilst surrounded by and in front of males.  The conversion ceremony includes changing the names of the victims and giving them Muslim names.  Their subsequent ‘marriage’ ceremony is video recorded as evidence to produce in a Court of law in anticipation of the victim’s family challenging the validity and legitimacy of the marriage ceremony. The perpetrators produce false birth certificates of the victim alleging that the victims are of legal age when the reality is that they are not.  

The young victims of rape, traumatised by their treatment, are informed in unequivocal terms that they will not be able to return to their families and if they they challenge the same, their parents and siblings will be killed. The victims are coerced and forced to confess under duress, that they freely ‘consented’ to the marriage.

These marriages are often to men considerably older than the victims and often men who may already have multiple wives. 
This process is targeted and carried out without impunity specifically against girls and women belonging minority communities  in Pakistan. These cases are rarely reported by the Pakistani and or the international media.

The families of the victims attempt to seek help including reporting the matter to the Police who often ignore the pleas of victim’s  family  and fail to formally register the complaint let alone  investigate these case let alone prosecute and punish the perpetrators. 

If the families are successful in persuading the Police to investigate and the matter reaches the Court, it is very likely the Court will Order the victim to be referred to a ‘Women’s Shelter/Home’ - this is regardless of the fact that the victim is a child. It is not clear whether the ‘Women’s Shelter/Home’ is  Government initiative or a private setup. What is clear is that the perpetrator, his family and friends are allowed to visit the victim in the Women’s Shelter/Home where the victim is further assaulted and tortured. The victim’s family is not allowed to contact her, let alone visit her. In fact it is not at all clear what the purpose is to place the victim in the home other than to isolate her further and to continue the violence against her and hope that the media attention fades away. It is extremely rare for the victims to be returned to the care of their respective families.

These homes do not provide any medical treatment or counselling for the victims. These are just holding places. 

These abductions, rapes,  forced conversions and forced marriages have to stop and for the perpetrators punished. This is child abuse, sexual exploitation of children,  acts of crimes, including crimes against humanity and the weaponisation of rape. This is a targeted attempt to ethnically cleanse a region.
We urge the international community to rise up and condemn the inaction by Pakistan authorities to end the abductions, prohibit  forced conversions and forced marriages forthwith. Failure to do so, is tantamount to complicity.