Conversion without consent

The abduction, forced religious conversions, and child marriage of faith minority girls in Pakistan

Abstract

International human rights law guarantees individuals the right to freedom of religion or belief via “worship, observance, practice and teaching”. Freedom of religion permits peaceful evangelism; it does not, protect acts of coercive conversion through bribery, promises of social benefits, or exploitation of another’s “inexperience, trust, need, low intellect or naïvety”. In the predominantly Muslim population in Pakistan, conversion to Islam is encouraged, and the negligible implementation of legislation – albeit already deficient or discriminatory in essence – further emboldens Muslim men to kidnap girls from minority faith communities, whom they then subject to forced religious conversions and child marriages.