Islamabad, Sep 30 (IANS): The cases of Christian girls Maria Shehbaz and Aneeqa Ishaq have been reported at a time when Pakistan is facing renewed scrutiny over treatment of its religious minorities. The case of Maria Shehbaz has reached the highest levels of Pakistan’s judiciary, while Aneeqa Ishaq is pursuing a legal case after allegedly being kept in captivity for months, a report has detailed.
Maria Shehbaz, a 13-year-old Christian girl, was kidnapped, converted to Islam and married to a 30-year-old man, while Aneeqa Ishaq, a 16-year-old Christian girl from Lahore, said she was kidnapped while she was heading to a church, forced to convert and sign documents stating she had married of her own will. The cases of these girls showcase the problems faced by girls from minority communities in Pakistan, a report in the ‘European Times’ highlighted.
Shehbaz was kidnapped and allegedly forced to convert to Islam and marry Shehryar Ahmad (30), according to Alliance Defending Freedom International. The court granted custody of Shehbaz to Ahmad after it accepted his claim regarding the marriage. The case sparked concerns from the international community about how courts in Pakistan assess the age and consent of minority girls in alleged forced conversion and marriage.
Aneeqa Ishaq and Maria Shehbaz are not the only cases in Pakistan which involve minority girls. In April, United Nations experts said that women and girls from Pakistan’s religious minorities continued to face kidnapping and forced conversion through marriage. In 2025, around 75 per cent of women and girls impacted by forced conversion through marriage were Hindu while 25 per cent were Christians, according to the UN experts.
The European Parliament mentioned the same UN figures in its resolution adopted on the human rights situation in Pakistan on July 9. The European Parliament called for the end to child marriage and the protection of religious minorities in Pakistan. The resolution of the European Parliament is one of the clearest recent international statements on the issue, according to the report.
The European Parliament’s resolution drew the international community’s attention towards the issue that rights groups and UN experts have highlighted for years that when a minority girl disappears in Pakistan, the subsequent claim that she converted and married of her own choice can become a legal protection around the alleged perpetrators.
“The cases of Maria Shahbaz and Aneeqa Ishaq have arrived at a moment when Pakistan is facing renewed scrutiny over the treatment of its religious minorities. Maria’s case has reached the highest levels of the judicial system. Aneeqa is pursuing legal action after allegedly spending months in captivity. Their experiences differ in detail, but both centre on the same question: whether a minority girl can exercise genuine freedom of religion and marriage when she is young, allegedly abducted and separated from her family,” the report in European Times mentioned.
“The cases of Maria Shahbaz and Aneeqa Ishaq have arrived at a moment when Pakistan is facing renewed scrutiny over the treatment of its religious minorities. Maria’s case has reached the highest levels of the judicial system. Aneeqa is pursuing legal action after allegedly spending months in captivity. Their experiences differ in detail, but both centre on the same question: whether a minority girl can exercise genuine freedom of religion and marriage when she is young, allegedly abducted and separated from her family,” it further detailed.
On September 19, a leading minority rights organisation raised grave concern over the abduction, forced conversion and marriage of two minor Hindu sisters in Pakistan’s Sindh province, saying the case has exposed the persistent threats faced by Hindu girls across Pakistan.
According to the Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM), the family alleged that Roopi and Seeta, aged 13 and 14, were abducted from Ibrahim Colony in Sindh’s Tando Allahyar district, forcibly converted to Islam and compelled to marry two Muslim men, Amjad Solangi and Mansoor Solangi.
Citing reports, the rights body said authorities presented the girls before a court in Tando Allahyar in connection with an abduction case. It said the court subsequently sent the sisters to a safe house instead of immediately returning them to their family.
The rights body said the sisters appeared visibly distressed outside the court, with people present hearing that they repeatedly pleaded to be allowed to return home. Additionally, a video circulating online showed the girls saying, “Let us go to our parents” and “We want to go home.”
“The state must interview Roopi and Seeta in a child-sensitive environment, away from alleged husbands, religious figures, intermediaries or anyone who could pressure them. Officials must allow the girls to speak freely and must provide them independent legal support and protection,” VOPM said, calling for an urgent, independent and transparent investigation into the matter.
