Shahida Bibi, a Christian woman in Pakistan, was cleared last month to leave her forced marriage to a Muslim and return to her faith and family.
Bibi’s mother eloped with a Muslim man when she was 11 years old, after which they “gave” the young girl to the man’s brother, according to a release from ADF International.
She gave birth to two children, while the brother “contracted Islamic Nikah, or a marriage union, to Bibi when she turned 18 in order to escape prosecution under the anti-child marriage law.”
But a civil court in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, ruled that Bibi’s marriage must be dissolved.
She was given new official documents correctly stating her religion as Christianity.
“Nobody should suffer the horrors of abduction and forced marriage, further being forced to give up their faith,” Tehmina Arora, the director of advocacy in Asia for ADF International, said in a statement.
“We are grateful that Shahida Bibi has received justice over her captor. Shahida is now free and able to begin the process of healing from this ordeal,” the statement added.
“These cases are a tremendous violation of these young women’s basic human rights, including their religious freedom.”
There are some 100 million girls across the world that face the risk of child marriages, according to a UNICEF statistic cited by ADF International.
Roughly 1,000 girls from religious minorities in Pakistan are forced to marry and change their religion every year.
The Christian nonprofit is “engaged in supporting women and girls suffering from forced marriage in light of the recurring issue where women and girls, often Christian, are forced to convert to Islam for their marriage to be validated by a Sharia court.”
Arora added that ADF International is urging the government of Pakistan to oppose forced marriages.
“The government has an opportunity to make a difference, and they should start by implementing a uniform age for marriage to prevent these forced kidnappings and marriages from happening in the first place,” the statement said.
“Every person under international law has the right to freely choose and live out their faith without fear of violence. Every state, including Pakistan, must ensure that their laws and policies are in line with their commitments to protect religious freedom under international law and that the laws they do have in place to protect girls from these violations are enforced,” Arora continued.
Open Doors, another organization which spotlights worldwide persecution against Christians, noted that Christian women in Pakistan can indeed be “forced into marriage with Muslims.”
There is a growing number of Christian girls “abducted, abused and forcefully converted to Islam.”
WIN in Pakistan! 🇵🇰
Shahida Bibi is now free to return home to her father & to her Christian faith after a court annulled her forced conversion & marriage to her stepfather’s brother.
We supported her defence & are grateful that she has received justice over her captor! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/wKrdJL6cAs
— ADF International (@ADFIntl) March 10, 2025
Pakistan also has “notorious blasphemy laws” used to target minorities, especially Christians, who compose only 1.8 percent of the population.
“Blasphemy laws carry a death sentence,” Open Doors noted. “While this is seldom carried out, people accused of blasphemy are vulnerable to attack or murder by mobs.”
Any church engaged in active outreach is targeted for opposition, while low-class jobs like cleaning sewers and baking bricks are reserved for Christians by the authorities.
In many cases, Christians are vulnerable to becoming trapped in bonded labor.
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