Pakistan - : A Christian girl forcefully converted to Islam after being kidnapped from her house

 Madeeha Bakhsh

A Christian girl betrothed to marry a Christian man forcefully converted to Islam after being abducted from her own house.

In keeping with details, a Christian girl identified as Nabila Bibi is yet another victim of forced conversion in Pakistan’s densely populated province Punjab. A Muslim man Allah Rakha kidnapped her from her father’s house in Changa Manga on October 16. Nabila Bibi was already engaged to Sajid Masih and was set to marry him this November.

Soon after the abduction of Nabila; her father Bashir Masih and fiancé Sajid Masih launched a complaint regarding Nabila Bibi’s abduction in the Changa Manga police station.

Shortly after the FIR was filed, a group of Muslim men arrived at Bashir Masih’s house. They told Bashir Masih that Nabila had converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim man. Moreover, Bashir Masih was shown some documents as proof of Nabila’s conversion and marriage. They told him that she was living happily in Allah Rakha’s house.

Nonetheless, after learning this, Bashir Masih, Sajid Masih and his cousins went to Allah Rakha’s house and asked him to bring Nabila out to meet them. However, Allah Rakha refused to let them meet Nabila Bibi, while a gang of about 15-20 Muslim men began threatening them in case they insisted meeting her or did not leave immediately. Despite, threatening from the Muslim men, Nabila’s family was reluctant to leave and kept insisting that Nabila be brought out to meet them. Seeing this, the Muslim men held them these Christian men captive at Allah Rakha’s house for a night.

However, the following day, the Christian men managed to flee from Allah Rakha’s house by some means. Yet their quandary was far from over, as the very next day the Muslim men went to Bashir Masih’s house and started inquiring about Sajid Masih’s whereabouts. After knowing where Nabila’s fiancé lived they left for Sajid Masih’s house. However, before they arrived at Sajid’s house, he fled from there and is still in hiding.

This is not an only case of its kind. According to a report by Aurat Foudation, every year about 1000 girls hailing from religious minorities are forcefully converted to Islam after forcibly given in marriage to Muslim men. Out of these 1000, about 700 are Christian women who fall victims to the gender based religious persecution.