Eleven-year-old Monika Luhano is back home safe and sound. Thankfully. Yet to point out that she is among the fortunate is an understatement. That she was recovered relatively swiftly speaks volumes of mobilisation efforts on the part of the Hindu community rather than, say, political impetus. Or, indeed, police efficiency. For the little girl was abducted over the weekend from her home in Sindh’s Matiari district; immediately giving rise to fears of forced conversion to Islam and, then, marriage.
This case should persuade the PPP government sitting at the provincial helm that the time has come to revisit the question of legislating against forced conversions; a violent practice that the Hindu community terms ‘genocide’. Indeed, it is beyond shameful that the political set-up capitulated to the religious right back in 2016 at the final hurdle. For despite the Sindh Assembly having passed the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill towards this end — the then provincial governor refrained from signing it into law.
Hardliners opposed the Bill on the grounds that no obstacles may be put in the path of those wishing to embrace Islam. And when it comes to the question of forced marriages to Muslim men — religious clerics are quick to defend the supposed right of the girl child to elope and marry of her free will. When such moves undertaken even by adult Muslim women are sufficient to incite honour killings.
Thus far women’s rights groups have been focusing on how the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013 puts the legal age of wedlock at 18 years. This is a good place to start. In fact, adopting a purely legal perspective serves to take some of the pressure off the Hindu community; which increasingly lives in fear of reprisals or worse. Yet the systematic overlooking of the religion question in the long-term risks strengthening the hand of the hardliners. Thus the way forward must see a concerted effort — led by the political set-up but in collaboration with civil society and right groups as well as moderate Muslim clerics — to frame forced conversion within the context of child marriage as not only statutory rape but also ethnic cleansing. And those at the forefront of such a campaign must build alliances within the majority Muslim community. For ideological extremists such as Hafiz Saeed and Khadim Rizvi harbour no love for the latter either. The endgame must therefore be to rob these actors of perceived moral legitimacy.
Naturally, none of this can happen overnight. But the PPP, having spent a decade at the helm in Sindh, cannot afford to squander yet more opportunities to safeguard the province’s Hindu community; comprising some six percent of the overall population. Thus no more can it stand impotent as children are abducted in broad daylight and, in Monika’s case, from what should be the safety of their own homes.
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