Forced Conversions In Pakistan: Where Are Human Rights For Pakistani Hindu, Sikh, & Christian Girls?
Across the world, human rights abuses, particularly against religious minority communities, are rampant. Religious fundamentalists across the globe and across all major religions have used demagoguery and bigoted actions, words, and conduct to harm religious minority communities.
Nowhere is this truer than in Pakistan, a country that has been deemed by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to be a “country of particular concern” for its treatment of religious and sectarian minorities. In particular, the USCIRF and various human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have pointed out that forced conversions to Islam of minor and young girls belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, and Christian communities are a significant problem in Pakistan, a problem that Pakistani authorities and even courts refuse to address. That’s precisely why it is imperative to understand what exactly forced conversions are, where they happen, who supports them, how many minority Pakistani girls are impacted, and the inaction and complicity of some Pakistani authorities regarding these forced conversions.
First, what exactly are forced conversions? Forced conversions are just what they sound like: they are acts of involuntary conversion to another religion that are conducted due to threats, coercion, or force. Forced conversions are particularly a concern in Pakistan as it still is a patriarchal, conservative country that prioritizes heterosexual males; in this context, not only are girls belonging to minority religious communities disadvantaged because of their gender, but they are also further struck down in social hierarchy for their faith. In fact, the USCIRF notes that the Pakistani school curriculum often portrays Hindus and Christians as “enemies” of the country who are “sympathetic towards [Pakistan’s] perceived enemies.” In short, for Hindu, Sikh, and Christian girls, both their gender and religion render them susceptible to forced conversions through threats, coercion, or force by dominant males who are placed higher in the Pakistani social hierarchy due to the virtue of their religion and gender.
With this understanding of what forced conversions are, it is paramount to analyze where these conversions occur and who supports them. Forced conversions in Pakistan happen across the country, be it to the Sikhs in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province or Hindus in Sindh. However, forced conversions in Pakistan are concentrated in the Sindh Province, and they predominantly impact Hindu and Christian girls, although Sikh girls and tribal Pakistani girls, including from the Kalash people, have been impacted as well. So, who supports these forced conversions? According to journalist Saba Imtiaz, forced conversions are “often backed by powerful shrines, seminaries, and clerics, as well as local politicians.” One of the most notorious practitioners of forced conversion in the Sindh Province is Mian Mithu, who, being the Pir of Dargah Bharchundi Sharif Abdul, has used his position to kidnap and forcibly convert countless Hindu teenage girls. Moreover, as Ms. Imtiaz mentions and as will be elucidated later, politicians are also often complicit in these forced conversions.
The support these forced conversions have from influential sections of Pakistani society has instilled fear in religious minority families. A report published by the Commonwealth Initiative for Freedom of Religion or Belief (CIFoRB) stated that “It has been estimated that 1000 women and girls from religious minorities are abducted, forcibly converted and then married off to their abductors every year” in Pakistan. The report also underscores that it is predominantly Hindu and Christian girls that are targeted for forced conversions; in fact, the former Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan himself admitted that at least 20 or more Hindu girls are abducted and forcibly converted each month. Hindus are at particular risk in Thar, Sanghar, Ghotki, and Jacobabad because, in addition to being a larger minority population in these locations, they are the most socioeconomically marginalized among the population.
Given the severe nature of this issue, one would think that Pakistani authorities and courts would take appropriate measures to provide relief to the girls who have been forcibly converted and to prevent such events from occurring in the future. Sadly, that has largely not been the case. While it is important to stress that many Pakistanis vehemently oppose these forced conversions and that some Pakistani politicians, including Bilawal Bhutto, have voiced against forced conversions, there has been very little substantive progress in either the legislative or judicial fronts. On the legislative front, even though the Sindh government, which is currently led by Bilawal Bhutto’s party, tried to pass a ban against forced conversions twice, these efforts failed both times because extreme Islamist political parties “threatened to besiege the assembly” if legislation addressing this issue was passed into law. Not only have many Pakistani politicians and authorities been unable to act on this issue, but some are also openly complicit in these forced conversions . For instance, in April of this year, two minor Hindu girls, Suthi and Shama, were abducted by the brother of a local politician in the Sindh Province, and the family of the girls stated, “We are not getting justice and are continuously facing atrocities. The brother of a Member of National Assembly (MNA) Pir Fasil Shah Jeelani threatens more abduction if we complain about it. Hindu minorities are facing threats . . . Police [are] also favouring the culprits.”
The judicial system largely fares no better in providing relief to victims. To best illustrate this point, we can look to the recent case of Huma Younas, a 14-year-old Pakistani Christian girl who was abducted, forcibly converted, married, and raped by Abdul Jabbar. When her case was brought to court, the High Court of Sindh dismissed the petition because the jurists believed that any girl who had gotten her first period was of marriageable age, so there was no need to overturn the “marriage” and forced conversion of a 14-year-old child. Not only does this specific case highlight the complicity of Pakistan’s judicial system towards forced conversions of minority females, but it is also a perfect example of how a patriarchal, conservative social system oppresses marginalized females belonging to religious minority communities.
All of this leads one to a natural question: where are human rights for Pakistani Hindu, Sikh, and Christian girls? No person, irrespective of their sex, gender, religion, sexual orientation, status, or class, should have to be the victims of any form of hate and bigotry, including forced conversions. While Pakistan even persecutes Shia and Ahmadi Muslims and is certainly not unique in its oppressive nature towards religious minorities, its continuing failure to address the issue of forced conversions will result in more of its own female citizens being abducted, forcibly converted, and married off to their abductor. Pakistan needs to do far more to prevent girls like Huma, Suthi, and Shama from becoming silenced victims of a horrendous crime against humanity.
