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August 3, 2020
As part of Family Research Council's growing engagement on international religious freedom, each month we are taking a focused look at one particular country, bearing witness to the abuses our Christian sisters and brothers are enduring there. While we pray for our own country, we also pray for countries where religious freedom does not exist and persecution against believers continues unabated.
In August, our international religious freedom focus is on Pakistan.
Last October, a 14-year-old Christian girl named Huma Younus was kidnapped from her home in Karachi, Pakistan by three men and taken to a city over 370 miles away.
Days later, Huma's distraught parents received documents alleging her conversion to Islam, along with a marriage certificate from her abductor.
Desperate, Huma's parents turned to the authorities, who failed to help. When the family took the matter to court, a high court in Pakistan issued the astounding ruling that men can marry underage girls according to Islamic law if the girl has had her first menstrual cycle.
This month, Huma told her father over the phone that she is expecting a baby, even as her captor has confined her to a single room, where she remains trapped in his house.
Unfortunately, Huma's story is not all that uncommon among Christian girls in Pakistan. These girls are often targeted for kidnapping and forced marriage, and the young Christian victims often face unsympathetic authorities and a biased judicial system.
Open Doors reports, "Christian (and Hindu) girls and young women, especially ages 13-20, are particularly vulnerable in Pakistan. Christians report that their girls are often abducted, raped, forced to marry their abductor, and converted by force. The authorities do not take any action; on the contrary, usually they side with the Muslim families abducting the girls."
This is not the only religious freedom violation taking place in Pakistan. The country is the fifth-worst persecutor of Christians, according to World Watch List. There are approximately four million Christians in the predominantly Muslim country of 204.5 million. The Christians are mostly poor and are disproportionally targeted for their faith.
Besides the abuse of non-Muslim women, one of the worst issues facing Christians in Pakistan is its dangerous blasphemy laws. These are used to target Christians and other non-Muslims, falsely accusing them of speaking against Islam, the Prophet Mohammad or the Koran. The death penalty applies to blasphemy violations in Pakistan, and extra-judicial murders sometimes follow fabricated accusations.
The horrifying case of Asia Bibi -- who had to flee Pakistan to save her life -- serves as a grim example of the country's vicious record against Christians.
Please remember Pakistan's Christians in prayer. The religious discrimination they face presents a myriad of challenges as they try to simply live out their faith.
In His Name,
Lela Gilbert
Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom
Arielle Del Turco
Assistant Director of the Center for Religious Liberty
"Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them..."
Hebrews 13:3
P.S. Today is the six-year anniversary of the beginning of ISIS' genocide against the Yazidi people. Click here to read more about the persecution Yazidis suffered under ISIS and the current challenges faced by the survivors.
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