12-Year-Old Christian Girl Rescued in Pakistan, Forced to Marry Muslim Man While in Captivity for 5 Months
01-23-2021
Pakistani flag
A Pakistani Christian girl was rescued from a Muslim man who reportedly abducted, raped, and forced her to marry him.
The 12-year-old was held captive for five months by her 45-year-old abductor, forcing her to work all day in his yard, according to Yahoo News.
Police discovered the young girl last month, revealing the deplorable conditions she had been living in - bound to shackles with cuts across her ankles.
According to Yahoo News, the case is now being pursued by human rights groups, who say the girl s family pleaded with police for several months to help them.
Christian girl, 12, kidnapped, chained up and forced to convert to Islam
Farah Shaheen, now 13, was rescued by police in December after spending months in her alleged abductor s garden. Her dad says was raped and treated like a slave for months
15:55, 20 JAN 2021
Updated
Farah Shaheen was allegedly subjected to horrifying abuse
The Daily Star s FREE newsletter is spectacular! Sign up today for the best stories straight to your inboxInvalid EmailSomething went wrong, please try again later.
Sign up today!
When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. OurPrivacy Noticeexplains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Child marriage and religious thought
Opinion
The writer is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Enactment and enforcement of legislation against child marriage has repeatedly run into resistance that claims religious authority. Overcoming this resistance will require a wider intellectual engagement with the foundations and structure of religious thought. Consider.
The latest report on Pakistan, based on figures contained in the Unicef database 2016, issued by the Center for Reproductive Rights makes for grim reading: “Child marriage in Pakistan constitutes an ongoing human rights violation on a large scale. Pakistan ranks sixth in the world in terms of the highest absolute numbers of child marriage. Twenty-one percent of girls in Pakistan are married by the age of 18. While child marriage affects both boys and girls in Pakistan, girls are disproportionately affected.”
A sessions court on Thursday granted bail to the main suspect in a case pertaining to the alleged underage marriage of Arzoo. File photo
A sessions court on Thursday granted bail to the main suspect in a case pertaining to the alleged underage marriage of Arzoo a teenage Christian girl who was allegedly abducted before being forcefully converted and married to a Muslim man.
Police have detained and booked the main suspect Syed Ali Azhar, cleric Qazi Abdul Rasool Naqshbandi who allegedly performed the underage marriage, the Justice of Peace who issued the marriage certificate, and facilitators and witnesses under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 3 of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013.