13-year-old Christian girl forced to accept conversion, marriage before camera in Pakistan

Not only the abduction, forced conversion and marriages of minor girls of minority communities including Christian, Hindu and Sikhs in Pakistan continues unabated but, to portray themselves ‘innocent’ and save from the clutches of law, the abductors are now forcing their ‘victims’ to justify their acts before the camera.

A video recording of 13-year-old Christian girl Arzoo Raza alias Arzoo Fatima, wherein she is heard embracing Islam and marrying  Ali Azhar, 44, on her own will, has taken many by surprise.

Strange, even the Pakistan court has also validated the marriage of Arzo0 with Ali based on a forged birth certificate submitted in the court by Ali, which mentions her age as 18 years old.

Notably, Arzoo was abducted from her home on October 13 and two days later she was converted to Islam and married to Ali. 

The marriage was validated by Sindh High Court based on the fake birth certificate.

As the community broke its silence over their persecution, police reportedly arrested two of Ali’s relatives but didn’t recover the girl.

To save them from any further police action, Ali recorded a video message of the girl and uploaded it on social media. 

Demonstrations were also held in front of the Consulate General of Pakistan, Canada by the local Pakistani Christian community seeking justice for Arzoo.

As the incident flared up, Pakistan Rights activists joined hands for a concerted struggle against such acts perpetrated by Islamist fundamentalists.

Rahat Austin and Radesh Singh Ton, both human rights activists of Pakistan, held a virtual meeting to chalk out the course of their agitation and decided to contact the Hindu right activists and the victim families so that their cases could be taken up both at national as well as international level to pressure the Pakistan government to not only provide safety and security to the minorities but also take strict action against the persons responsible for ‘terrorising’ the minorities.

Even the Pakistan government appears to have a soft corner for the Islamist fundamentalists which is evident from the fact that Arzoo’s parents produced an official birth certificate in the court, according to which she is 13 years old, yet the court ignored the official document and weighed more to the statement that the girl has already recited (Islamic proclamation of faith) and upheld her marriage.