A 14-year-old girl was abducted from Jacobabad. Ali Raza Solangi, 30, kidnapped her while she was on her way to school. She has been converted to Islam and married off to Ali Raza Solangi.
“My daughter has been kidnapped, and Ali Raza, who is a laborer, is responsible for her abduction. He is already married and has four children. How can my daughter like him?” said Vijay Kumar, the girl’s father.
In the Sindh and Punjab provinces of Pakistan, cases of forced conversions have been reported. In the past three months, three to four girls have been kidnapped and converted to Islam. The police have not recovered them.
Nevertheless, the Sindh government attempted to end child marriage; therefore, it legislated the ‘Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2014.’ The act was introduced after the case of Anjali Kumari, who had been kidnapped. It was established that she was underage. The court sent her to a shelter home, and when she turned 18, she was sent to the man who had married her.
Why Child Marriage Restraint Act cannot protect Non-Muslims girls
“This act will apply to Non-Muslims only if both [boy and girl] are Non-Muslims. However, if the girl is Non-Muslim and the boy is Muslim, the authorities will not implement the act accordingly,” said Amar Nath, an advocate. “Because Islam allows conversion—including the marriage of a minor.”
Non-Muslims are not equal citizens; therefore, these kinds of laws do not apply to them.
Raj Kumar, an activist, criticized systematic discrimination in the state, saying, “Non-Muslims are already discriminated against in the Constitution of Pakistan, so we do not see how their laws will help us.”
The local police have reportedly stopped child marriages of Muslim girls. Conversely, they fail to prevent the marriages of Non-Muslim girls who are minors.
“Once a girl has been converted to Islam, there is no way to send her back to her family—otherwise, she is considered worthy of being killed (‘Wajib-ul-Qatl’),” says Kalpina Devi, an activist and advocate. She adds that the Child Marriage Act cannot protect Non-Muslim girls because the prevailing mindset believes that converting a girl to Islam will send her to Heaven (‘Jannat’).
Veerji Kohli, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister of Sindh for the Human Rights Department, agreed that the act has not been implemented equally. Hindu families are often unable to provide proof of a girl’s age. In Monika Kumari’s case, however, her family successfully proved her age, and the court returned her to her parents.
When asked about Monika Kumari’s case—where, a few months later, she was kidnapped again, and her whereabouts remain unknown—along with another case of a Christian girl in Karachi in November 2019, who was kidnapped, converted to Islam, and then married off to an adult despite her parents proving she was underage—Veerji Kohli responded, “I accept the lack of implementation of the act, and in 2020, our government will ensure its enforcement.”
Asad Iqbal Butt, spokesperson for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said, “It is a mindset that prevails in every institution of the state. Even some judges have been heard saying, ‘Why are you pursuing cases of conversion?’”
“You cannot implement the law unless you change the mindset. A mindset is being built through the syllabus, which teaches that Jews and Hindus are enemies. The state must change the syllabus. The law is legislated by governments to appease international forums in order to receive funds,” he said.
Ravi Dawani, Secretary General of the All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat, says that certain forces prevent the implementation of the act. “We have the example of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, who was gunned down. Who is stopping the Sindh government from releasing Dr. Nimrita Kumari’s report?” he asked. “In Punjab, the court allows girls to return home. But in Sindh, despite the law, courts send girls to shelter homes instead of returning them to their parents.”
“Hindus are very disappointed, and no one is interested in solving our issues,” said Ravi Dawani.
“The local police know where the girls are, but they do not help families recover them because the girl is Non-Muslim,” says Leela Raam, an activist and lawyer.
