MAIRA SHAHBAZ, the kidnapped Pakistani Christian
girl at the recent center of international attention, has escaped from
the home of Mohamad Nakash, the man who, according to the Lahore High
Court, is her legitimate husband. After her escape,
she went to a police station to give her testimony, in which she also
declared that she was filmed while by being raped by the kidnapper.
Maira fled Nakash’s home in Faisalabad, where
sources close to the family say she was forced into prostitution. Now
she, her mother and three siblings are on the run. According to Maira,
Nakash has threatened to kill her and her family.
“They threatened to murder my whole family. My life
was at stake in the hands of the accused and Nakash repeatedly raped me
forcefully.”
In her declaration the Catholic girl refuted her
alleged conversion from Christianity, stressing that she had been
tricked and forced into signing blank documents. She added that the
abductor and his accomplices threatened to publish the
rape video online if she did not comply with their demands.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) received a copy of
Maira’s statement to the police from the family’s lawyer, Khalil Tahir
Sandhu. She described how she was kidnapped and the atrocious cruelties
she suffered in captivity.
In an interview with ACN, Lala Robin Daniel, a
friend of Maira’s family, described their life on the run, moving from
place to place every few days, adding: “Maira is traumatized. She cannot
speak. We want to take her to the doctor, but
we are afraid we might be spotted.”
“We are all very frightened, but we place our trust in God.”
The family has demanded Nakash’s arrest for sex
crimes involving a minor. Her lawyer, Tahir Sandhu, has applied to the
courts both to cancel the marriage and to recognize the violence
suffered by Maira to attain the forced conversion.
In response, the alleged kidnapper has requested
the arrest of the victim's mother, Nighat, her uncles and Lala Robin
Daniel, claiming that they kidnapped the girl and took her away from his
home.
These events come nearly three weeks after the
Lahore High Court ruled in Nakash’s favor in the case of the girl’s
alleged abduction on April 28, 2020, when it is claimed that he and two
armed accomplices kidnapped her in broad daylight
close to her home.
The family has consistently contested Nakash’s
claims of having married Maira, and in court Maira’s lawyer produced an
official birth certificate to show the girl was 13 at the time of the
alleged ceremony last October, and thus too young
to be legally married. The Muslim cleric named in the marriage
certificate has dismissed it as a fake and went to the police to
complain.
According to the ACN’s Religious Freedom in the
World Report, the abduction and forced conversion of women from
religious minorities—frequently accompanied by rape and other sexual
violence—is a major problem in a number of countries of
particular concern, especially Pakistan and Egypt.
These abductions do not follow a set pattern. Some
are opportunistic, while others are carried out by organized groups. A
significant proportion is not necessarily motivated exclusively by
religious faith but a combination of factors, including,
in some cases, financial incentives.
Local NGO’s in Pakistan estimated that at every
year at least 1,000 Christian and Hindu women are kidnapped and forced
to convert to Islam and marry their attacker. In Egypt, at least 550
Christian women aged 14 to 40 disappeared between
2011 and 2014—and girls there are still abducted regularly.
According to the Human Rights Council of Pakistan
and the Movement for Solidarity and Peace in Pakistan, the number of
abductions of women is on the rise. Often, authorities tell parents the
girl has converted and married of her own free
will. Many families don’t report the crime, or withdraw the case,
following threats against other female members of the family.
—John Pontifex & Maria Lozano
With picture of Maira Shahbaz
(©
ACN)
Editor’s Notes:
Directly under the Holy
Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they
are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic
charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by
Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An
Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over
145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes
thousands of projects every year including providing transport for
clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding
for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians.
Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in
Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.
For more information contact Michael Varenne at
michael@churchinneed.org
or call 718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need,
725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.
www.churchinneed.org
