Please sign our petition calling for protection of Christian girls and women (click here)
On 27th July, Chashman Kanwal (14 yrs) was kidnapped sometime after being dropped at 8am at Government Higher Secondary School in Faisalabad. Here parents only realised when she did not return home from school and the immediately contacted the school who were unaware of her whereabouts.
Later they visited Faisalabad Police Station, though an First Information Report (FIR) was only registered the following day (28th July) for a missing person (FIR 622/21).
Her father Gulzar Masih was contacted by the police on 29th July and during a telephone conversation they informed him that Chashman had embraced Islam and was now married to a Muslim man named Muhammad Usman.
Mr Gulzar was invited to attend the police station the same day and was provided documents confirming her marriage and conversion. The letter was on the headed paper of the Islamist group “Pakistan Sunni Tehreek” located at a district office based at Johar Town, GT Road, Sahiwal.
Pakistan Sunni Tehreek are known for a gun attack on a mosque in 2017 (click here).
They are also know for their staunch support for murderer Mumtaz Qadri who assassinated Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer, who called for freedom for Asia Bibi and for abrogation of the blasphemy laws. The same group also called for Shaan Taseer the son of the Governor to be lynched for a blasphemy after he called for People to pray for victims of Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws during Christmas 2017 (click here).
Police showed the parents a statement declaring that Chashman has willingly converted to Islam and entered into an Islamic Marriage with Muhammad Usman. Police have totally ignored state laws that declare that at a tender age of 14 minor girls need parental consent for marriage. Her conversion papers have already given her the new Islamic name Ayesha Bibi. These sham papers also follow the usual pattern of declaring that Chashman is 19 years of age, an age that is above statutory need for consent – a very usual ploy to waylay statutory authorities. This false age is being used as justification for the marriage despite clear evidence in the form of Chashman’s national identity card, which confirms she is a minor.
The parents are getting some support from a local charity but have so far not been able to even meet with their daughter.
Princess has been abducted since 3rd August 2021
A further teenager named princess was kidnapped while she was going to her school in Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 3rd August. She was a ninth-grader and also 14 years age and said to be a very bright student.
When her parents brought the matter to police the again delayed their investigation telling the parents they should at first attempt to find her before she could be listed as a missing person. on 11th August police finally filed a missing persons report. Some days later they confirmed that the young girl had legally converted to Islam and that she had willingly married a Muslim man named Muhammad Zulqarnain. On the same day, they shared copies of the marriage and conversion to Islam certificates along with other legal documents to her parents.
The child’s father named Francis have explained that they tried their best to find her on their own but found no clues to her whereabouts. In fact her school and other children had no information to share.
The Islamic cleric who presided over the marriage and conversion had increased the child’s age from 14 years to 17 years, in order to conduct a pseudo-legal marriage ceremony. The cleric wrote this false age into both the marriage and conversion to Islam certificate.
The local District court has accepted her age as 17 years old despite conflicting National Data and Registration Authority (NADRA). Her NADRA card (national identity card) is being ignored as judges and authorities are complicit with the rapists. The whole process exhibits the deep-set flaws in Pakistani society at all echelons, considering state laws now require a child to be 18 to marry without parental consent.
Francis has informed us that now the kidnapper, police and religious clerics are pressurising the girl’s family to withdraw their case. They are offering a bribe as a compromise to the family and are trying to force the parents to accept the fact that their daughter is now married to her kidnapper. The parents of Princess have not seen their daughter since the kidnap.
A very disturbing pattern of kidnap from school of minor Christian girls, police apathy and their complicity in sharing news of Islamic conversion and marriages, is traceable. But then we already know this, as it was reported in 2014 by the Movement of Solidarity and Peace a Muslim NGO. They estimated that 700 Christian girls are abducted in this fashion every year – we believe the figure may be even higher (click here).
Juliet Chowdhry, Trustee for the British Asian Christian Association, said:
“It is distressing to see how many girls are so easily kidnapped and then forced into Islamic marriage to their abductors.
“The fate of these girls after marriage is often appalling, becoming; hated second-wives detested by primary wives and their children, slaves, prostitutes or killed.
“A few of them can be released after years of sexual slavery and never recover from their trauma.
“Some of those released take their own lives or live on the margins of society, as pariahs – victims of Pakistani honour culture.
“A few get to begin new lives many years later through more loving parents.”
She added:
“Pakistani authorities have the legal framework to protect these young girls and women but they lack the desire and heart to defend them.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan himself engages in victim blaming but how is it possible that young girls in very modest school uniforms are making themselves more vulnerable? Read more (here)
“Is this really the new Pakistan he desired to create?”
Please sign our petition calling for protection of Christian girls and women (click here)
British Asian Christian Association has not yet offered any help to these families as we simply do not have the funds to assist. We would like to help but would need your donations to make this possible. If you feel moved by these accounts and would like to donate to our fund to help forced marriage victims them please donate (here).
We were the first ever charity to free a Christian woman from the shackles of a forced marriage way back in 2015, you can read about it (here) and (here).
We are currently supporting several other families as they fight for their violated daughters including 16 year old Muqadas (click here). Six year old Tabitha (click here) and 10 year old Aleeza Younis (click here)
