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==Reasons==
==Reasons==
According to some child protection activists, the forced conversion of young girls is part of a moneymaking scheme involving corrupt public and religious figures who allow underaged girls to be converted to islam and married to older men in exchange for money.<ref name="KATHY"/>
According to the Child Protection activists, these forced conversions money-making network which involves Islamic clerics who solemnize the marriages, magistrates who legalize the unions and corrupt local police who aid the culprits by refusing to investigate or sabotaging investigations. According to the Child Protection activist Jibran Nasir, these forced conversions are part of a mafia that preys on vulnerable minority girls for older men with pedophilia urges.<ref name="KATHY"/>


Some coerced conversions are results of kidnappings or violent threats while others are due to the systemic discrimination that many Hindus face in their professional, public, and private lives, and conversion is seen by many as a way to avoid religious discrimination and violence.<ref>{{cite news |title=Poor and Desperate, Pakistani Hindus Accept Islam to Get By |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/world/asia/pakistan-hindu-conversion.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=4 August 2020 |last1=Abi-Habib |first1=Maria |last2=Ur-Rehman |first2=Zia |access-date=27 October 2021 |archive-date=14 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814074954/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/world/asia/pakistan-hindu-conversion.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Some coerced conversions are results of kidnappings or violent threats while others are due to the systemic discrimination that many Hindus face in their professional, public, and private lives, and conversion is seen by many as a way to avoid religious discrimination and violence.<ref>{{cite news |title=Poor and Desperate, Pakistani Hindus Accept Islam to Get By |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/world/asia/pakistan-hindu-conversion.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=4 August 2020 |last1=Abi-Habib |first1=Maria |last2=Ur-Rehman |first2=Zia |access-date=27 October 2021 |archive-date=14 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814074954/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/world/asia/pakistan-hindu-conversion.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Revision as of 15:55, 12 May 2023

Protest against forced conversion of Hindu girls conducted by Pakistan Hindu Council

In Pakistan, approximately 1,000 girls belonging to the minority Hindu, Christian and Sikh communities are kidnapped and forcefully converted to Islam every year according to abc news .[1][2] Most of the targets are Hindu and Christian girls from lower Castes and poor families.[3]

According to the Pakistan Hindu Council religious persecution, especially forced conversions, remains the foremost reason for migration of Hindus from Pakistan. This practice is being reported increasingly in the districts of Tharparkar, Umerkot and Mirpur Khas in Sindh.[4]

Incidents

On 18 October 2005, Sanno Amra and Champa, a Hindu couple residing in the Punjab Colony, Karachi, Sindh returned home to find that their three teenage daughters had disappeared. After inquiries to the local police, the couple discovered that their daughters had been taken to a local madrassah, had been converted to Islam, and were denied unsupervised contact with their parents.[5] In January 2017, a Hindu temple was demolished in Pakistan's Haripur district.[6]

In May 2007, members of the Christian community of Charsadda in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, close to the border of Afghanistan, reported that they had received letters threatening bombings if they did not convert to Islam, and that the police were not taking their fears seriously.[7]

Rinkle Kumari, a 19-year Pakistani student, Lata Kumari, and Asha Kumari, a Hindu working in a beauty parlor, were allegedly forced to convert from Hinduism to Islam.[8][9] They told the judge that they wanted to go with their parents.[10] Their cases were appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The appeal was admitted but remained unheard ever after.[11] Rinkle was abducted by a gang and "forced" to convert to Islam, before being head shaved.[12]

Sikhs in Hangu district stated they were being pressured to convert to Islam by Yaqoob Khan, the assistant commissioner of Tall Tehsil, in December 2017. However, the Deputy Commissioner of Hangu Shahid Mehmood denied it occurred and claimed that Sikhs were offended during a conversation with Yaqub though it was not intentional.[13][14][15][16]

Many Hindus convert to Islam in order to acquire Watan Cards and National Identification Cards. These converts are also given land and money. [17]

In October 2020, the Pakistani High Court upheld the validity of a forced marriage between 44-year-old Ali Azhar and 13-year-old Christian Arzoo Raja. Raja was abducted by Azhar, forcibly wed to Azhar and then forcibly converted to Islam by Azhar.[18]

Reasons

According to some child protection activists, the forced conversion of young girls is part of a moneymaking scheme involving corrupt public and religious figures who allow underaged girls to be converted to islam and married to older men in exchange for money.[2]

Some coerced conversions are results of kidnappings or violent threats while others are due to the systemic discrimination that many Hindus face in their professional, public, and private lives, and conversion is seen by many as a way to avoid religious discrimination and violence.[19]

Consequences

A survey conducted by the Pakistan Hindu Seva welfare Trust found that majority of the scheduled caste Hindu families doesn't send their girl children to schools due to the fear of forced conversion.[20] According to the, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, member of National Assembly of Pakistan, around 5,000 Hindus are migrating from Pakistan to India every year and the forced conversions are one of the major reasons behind this.[21] According to the Pakistan Hindu Council, forced conversions is the foremost reason for the declining population of Hindus in Pakistan.[22] Hindus in Sindh live in fear, due to forced marriage of Hindu girls to Muslim men.[23] Many Pakistani Hindus migrate to India due to forced conversions.[24]

Legal responses

Dalit Sujag Tehreek protesting against forced conversion of Dalit Hindu girls

Pakistan does not have strong laws designed to prevent coerced religious conversion, which has drawn criticism for allowing coerced conversions to go largely unpunished. [25]

In November 2016, a bill prohibiting forced conversion was passed by the Sindh Provisional Assembly however, the Governor of Sindh faced pressure from muslim groups not to sign the bill, leading to it not becoming a law.[26] In 2019, another bill against forced conversion was proposed in the Sindh assembly, but was turned down by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.[27] In 2020 a bill aimed at preventing coerced conversions was introduced in the Senate of Pakistan that could prevent forced conversions of minority girls, but it was turned down by the Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony. Krishna Kumari Kolhi, a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator, walked out of the Senate during the meeting as a form of protest.[28]

Response

Protest against forced conversion of Christian girls in Pakistan organised by NCJP

The Pakistani Nobel Laurette Malala Yousafzai spoke against forced conversions in Pakistan and said "It should be a personal choice and no one, especially a child shouldn’t be forced to accept any faith or convert to any other religion out of the will,"[29] The Pakistani Prime minister Imran Khan has said that forced conversions are 'un-Islamic'[30] and are against the commands of Allah.[31] The Deputy Leader of Conservative Party of Canada Candice Bergen has said that "The reports coming out of Pakistan of Christian and Hindu girls being abducted, raped, forced into marriages and coerced to convert from their faith are deeply concerning and need to be addressed". She also called for the re-establishment of Office of Religious Freedom in Canada to address the issue.[32]

Pakistan has no law to stop forced conversion.[33] The Pakistani minority groups protested when Pakistani parliamentary committee rejected the anti forced conversion bill.[34]

The All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat (APHP) general secretary, who in an interview with The Times of India said the "majority of cases of marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men were result of love affairs. He claimed that due to honor, the family members of women concoct stories of abduction and forced conversions". While the general secretary admitted that there were incidents of abductions and forced conversions of Hindu girls, he claimed that those incidents are not in large numbers.[35]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Stories of forced conversion to Islam in Pakistan". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
  2. ^ a b KATHY GANNON (28 December 2020). "Each year, 1,000 Pakistani girls forcibly converted to Islam". abc news. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  3. ^ Siobhan Heanue (26 July 2019). "Hindu sisters Reena and Raveena become face of forced religious conversion in Pakistan". ABC news. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  4. ^ "Forced conversions of Pakistani Hindu girls". September 19, 2017. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  5. ^ "Pakistan". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 13 October 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Minority rights: Another Hindu temple demolished – The Express Tribune". The Express Tribune. 2017-01-21. Archived from the original on 2017-09-17. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
  7. ^ "Taliban Tells Pakistani Christians: Convert or Die". Fox News. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
  8. ^ "Opinion: Rinkle Kumari – the new Marvi of Sindh by Marvi Sirmed". Thefridaytimes.com. Archived from the original on 2013-02-03. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
  9. ^ "SC orders release of Rinkle Kumari, others". Pakistan Observer. April 19, 2012. Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  10. ^ "Hindus in Pak happy after girl's statement in SC". Deccan Herald. 27 March 2012. Archived from the original on 15 January 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  11. ^ "Curbs on forced conversion". The Express Tribune. 7 December 2016. Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  12. ^ Walsh, Declan (25 March 2012). "Pakistani Hindus Say Woman's Conversion to Islam Was Coerced". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  13. ^ "Sikh community in Hangu 'being forced to convert'". The Express Tribune. 16 December 2017. Archived from the original on 21 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  14. ^ "Sikhs in Pakistan complain of pressure to convert". 16 December 2017. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  15. ^ "Sikhs told to 'convert to Islam' by Pakistani official". Rabwah Times. December 16, 2017. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  16. ^ Anwar, Madeeha (December 23, 2017). "Authorities Investigate Cases of Forced Conversion of Sikh Minority in Pakistan". Extremism Watch Desk. Voice of America. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  17. ^ "Mass conversions: For Matli's poor Hindus, 'lakshmi' lies in another religion". The Express Tribune. January 20, 2012. Archived from the original on March 5, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  18. ^ "Pakistan high court upholds forced marriage of abducted Catholic minor". Catholic Herald. October 28, 2020. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
  19. ^ Abi-Habib, Maria; Ur-Rehman, Zia (4 August 2020). "Poor and Desperate, Pakistani Hindus Accept Islam to Get By". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  20. ^ Yudhvir Rana (4 June 2013). "Hindu parents don't send girl children to schools in Pakistan: Report". Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  21. ^ Haider, Irfan (13 May 2014). "5,000 Hindus migrating to India every year, NA told". Archived from the original on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  22. ^ Quratulain, Fatima (19 September 2017), "Forced conversions of Pakistani Hindu girls", Daily Times (Pakistan), archived from the original on 9 November 2020, retrieved 13 February 2021
  23. ^ "Forced conversions torment Pakistan's Hindus". Al Jazeera English. Archived from the original on 2019-06-29. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
  24. ^ "Waves of Hindus trade Pakistan for India". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference DW was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Ackerman, Reuben; Rehman, Javaid; Johns, Morris, Forced Conversions & Forced Marriages in Sindh, Pakistan (PDF), CIFORB, the University of Birmingham, archived (PDF) from the original on 29 September 2018, retrieved 13 February 2021
  27. ^ Tunio, Hafeez (9 October 2019), "PPP lawmakers turn down bill against forced conversions", The Express Tribune, archived from the original on 10 February 2021, retrieved 13 February 2021
  28. ^ "Senate panel 'turns down' bill on minorities rights". The Tribune. 2 February 2021. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  29. ^ "I strongly condemn any incident where girls are forced to get married: Malala". Daily Times. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  30. ^ "Forced conversions are 'un-Islamic', says Imran Khan". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  31. ^ "Forced conversions are against the commands of Allah: Imran". SAMAA. 24 October 2017. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  32. ^ Zeenya Shah. "Attacks on minority women in Pakistan spark calls to reopen Office of Religious Freedoms closed by Liberals". National post. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  33. ^ "Hindu Today, Muslim Tomorrow". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2018-07-25. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
  34. ^ "Parliamentary panel rejects anti-forced conversion bill amid protest by minorities' lawmakers". Dawn. Archived from the original on 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
  35. ^ Rana, Yudhvir (30 January 2020). "Most marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men result of love affairs, not abduction, says All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 3 March 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
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