ICC Note:

The family of a Christian girl who was kidnapped, raped, forced to convert to Islam, and then forcefully married to a Muslim are now under threat if they refuse to hand back their daughter to her captors. Seven months ago, Asma was kidnapped by a powerful Muslim neighbor who forcefully converted her to Islam and forcefully married her. After she escaped and returned to her family, local clerics claimed that Asma had re-converted to Christianity and was now apostate and should be killed unless she returns to her “husband” and new faith. Asma’s story is just one of hundreds of Christian girls and women who face similar situations in Pakistan each year.  

8/4/2016 Pakistan (Christian Today) – A severely disabled Pakistani Christian girl faces death threats if she does not return to her Muslim abductor who forcibly converted her to Islam.

Asma, the girl’s Christian name which became Aysha under her Muslim captors, has been told by Islamic clerics that she cannot live with her Christian parents because she has converted to Islam and married a Muslim, according to CLAAS-UK, a legal persecution charity.

But the girl’s lawyer said she was kidnapped by a powerful neighbor several months ago and forced into a marriage. Despite the protestations of her father, Gulzah Masih, he felt unable to retrieve his daughter, who is both deaf and dumb, because of the influence of the captor, Ghulam Hussain.

Hussain’s documents of marriage and alleged conversion are “clearly forged”, according to the charity.

But police have sided with Hussain and ordered Masih to return his daughter after she escaped and re-joined her parents. The Christian persecution charity said this was because of “pressure from Muslim [clerics]”.

In a statement on Wednesday they said “the situation has become very dangerous” after Asma and her family faced death threats from Muslims clerics. The religious leaders believe Asma converted to Islam and then re-converted back to Christianity, making her an apostate and liable to be killed.

Nasir Saeed, director of CLAAS-UK, said the increase of forced conversion and kidnapping of Christian and other minorities’ girls is down to the government’s failure.

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