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Confronting Religious Persecution at the IRF Summit

Feb. 10Stories That Demand Action:

Last week I spoke on a panel at the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington, D.C.—a global gathering that brings together advocates, policymakers, and legal experts from around the world who are on the front lines of defending religious freedom. The Summit provides a rare forum to share firsthand experiences, expose ongoing...More

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Persecuted Pakistani Christians

At least 1,000 young Christian and Hindu girls and women are forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men every year in Pakistan. It appears that a well-planned campaign is going on. In almost every story, a young minority girl, usually about 13 or 14 years old, disappears from her home or school, then a few days later her family finds out she converted to Islam and married a Muslim man (usually a much older neighbor).

Our recent submission to the U.N. Human Rights Council details several such incidents, highlighting this growing kind of Christian persecution in Pakistan. We brought the Council’s attention to a case in which a 14-year-old Christian girl, Mehak James (M.J.), went missing in September 2020.

Our international affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice’s (ECLJ) affiliate office in Pakistan is representing Mehak’s parents and is closely aware of their plight.

In our report, we mentioned:

while evidence exists that a Muslim man who lives just next door was in continuous contact with M.J. on the day of her disappearance, M.J. is still missing, the prime suspect (the neighbor) is not being investigated, and the police are still doing nothing to find M.J. After the lower courts refused to order the police to find M.J., our affiliate appealed before the Supreme Court of Pakistan, seeking orders against the police to search for her and asking for a proper investigation. The Supreme Court refused to order the police to search for M.J., or take any action, whatsoever. Instead, during the oral argument, the court told our affiliate’s attorney it would only order the police to rescue M.J. if he could point out her location.

The submission also highlighted the case of Mahnoor Ashraf, a Christian teenage girl who was kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.

In January 2022, after leaving her home with her nephew to go to the store, Mahnoor was kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam and marry a 45-year-old Muslim neighbor, Muhammad Ali Khan Ghauri, who is already married and has two children. Mahnoor’s father filed a police report against Ghauri and his accomplices but the police have not done anything to help find Mahnoor.

The submission talks about several other cases, showing a growing trend in Pakistan where young minority girls are being targeted for forced conversions to Islam and forced marriages with Muslim men.

We also pointed out the double standard and discrimination that Christians face at the hands of law enforcement and courts in such cases. For instance, in a recent case in which Dua Zehra, a 14-year-old Muslim girl, went missing, her family found out that she had married a Muslim man she liked. The family filed kidnapping charges and the police found the girl within days.

Furthermore, one wonders, while Muslim men are converting young Christian girls to Islam and marrying them, why Muslims are not interested in giving their daughters into marriages to Christian men. In fact, when a Christian man is involved in a relationship with a Muslim woman, the man faces the full wrath of the Muslim community and law enforcement.

We encountered one such case where a Christian man was in a relationship with a Muslim woman. After the woman’s family found out, several male relatives of the woman kidnapped the Christian man, brought him to their house, severely beat him, and then filed false charges of rape against him. He was hospitalized for six days. The police report said the young Christian man came to the house and tried to rape the daughter. Interestingly, the police report also mentioned that all of the woman’s family members (including mom, dad, and siblings) were in the house at the time.

After the Christian man was out on bail, his Muslim girlfriend left her house and they got married. It took over a year for the court to hear the Muslim woman’s testimony that the attempted rape allegation was false and that they were both happily married. The court then dismissed the case.

There are obvious double standards in these cases. When a young Christian girl is forced to convert to Islam and married to a Muslim man who is already married and with children, no one seems to care. When a Christian girl goes missing, police don’t investigate even though the evidence against suspects is right in front of them. That’s what happened in Mehak’s case (mentioned above). Even the Supreme Court of Pakistan disregarded the evidence and didn’t order the police to do their job.

So, we asked the U.N. Human Rights Council to urge Pakistan to comply with its national and international obligations.

Pakistan has a fundamental responsibility to protect all girls from violence, regardless of religion or background. Pakistan is a party to the ICCPR, CEDAW, and CRC, and is obligated to provide due process of law, protection of fundamental rights, including life and liberty, to all of its citizens, especially the vulnerable groups such as women and minorities. We urge this Council to remind the Government of Pakistan of its national and international obligations, and to follow through on its commitment to protect all of its citizens, especially young girls who belong to minority religions. All women, regardless of religion, should be protected from violence and persecution.

We hope that the Pakistani authorities take action against such discrimination and persecution.

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Signatures

Shaheryar Gill  //

Feb 10, 2026

Last week I spoke on a panel at the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington, D.C.—a global gathering that brings together advocates, policymakers, and legal experts from around the world who...

Shaheryar Gill  //

Jan 27, 2026

We recently informed you about V, a seven-year-old girl, who was sexually abused by a Muslim neighbor in Pakistan. We have been working on a similar, and even more horrific, case in which two Christian women...

Shaheryar Gill  //

Jan 21, 2026

Today I want to bring you an important update on another critical case involving a vulnerable seven-year-old Christian girl , to whom we will refer as “V” to protect her identity. V was sexually abused by a...