“Pakistan: Abducted and Forcibly Married Christian Girls Seek Justice in Courts”, Bitter Winter, October 24, 2023:
“Christian and Hindu girls continue to be abducted, raped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to Muslim men in Pakistan, a phenomenon “Bitter Winter” has repeatedly denounced. This obnoxious practice would not prosper without some complicity by police and courts of law. Some cases do land in courts. But it is not easy for the victims to win them. Sometimes, the victims are treated as if they were the perpetrators.
Two cases of this month are of special interest. One concerns Mishal Rasheed, who was 15 when she was abducted at gunpoint on October 25, 2022, and taken to an unknown locality, where she was gang-raped by four men. These rapes are unfortunately customary and serve a specific purpose. It is believed that once no longer a virgin, a girl would become unsuitable for marriage, even if she belongs to a religious minority, and her only choice would be to marry one of her captors.
Mishal was then forcibly converted to Islam and married to one of the kidnappers, Abdul Sattar. After six months, Sattar’s brother died and, while everybody in the house was busy with the funeral, Mishal managed to escape and return to her father’s home…..”
Read the full article at Bitterwinter.org
