United Nations human rights specialists in Geneva have sounded the alarm on a disturbing surge in kidnappings of minority community girls in Pakistan, followed by coerced conversions to Islam and sham marriages. A pervasive atmosphere of impunity is fueling this humanitarian outrage across the country.
Religious conversion must always stem from personal choice, free of duress, the experts insisted. Valid marriages demand mutual, uncoerced consent; underage victims cannot provide it legally.
Statistics from 2025 paint a harrowing picture—75% of cases involved Hindu girls, 25% Christian, with Sindh province accounting for 80% of abductions. Predators focus on teens aged 14-18, but toddlers have also been ensnared.
Poverty-stricken girls on society’s fringes suffer the worst: brutal assaults, sexual exploitation, public shaming, and lifelong mental scars. These young lives, robbed of agency, dwell in terror as their faiths and futures are hijacked.
This pattern screams systemic bias against non-Muslim females, pressuring them into Islam for unions with Muslim males. The UN panel demanded urgent reforms: uniform 18-year marriage age, standalone laws punishing forced conversions, tougher anti-trafficking enforcement.
Every claim merits swift, fair probes and convictions. Too often, police ignore pleas, botch age verifications, and let culprits walk free.
Governments must deliver gender-sensitive aid: secure homes, lawyers, therapy, reintegration paths. But Pakistan has failed to tackle core issues—male-dominated norms, inequality, economic despair, prejudice, intolerance, unpunished crimes.
The experts’ verdict is unequivocal: Religious liberty and equality are non-negotiable rights for every individual.
