The Tragedy Of Pakistani Christian Girls

FROM INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

Each year in Pakistan, roughly 1,000 young girls — many of whom are Christians — are kidnapped from their homes.

These girls are often found months later, after they’ve been forced to convert to Islam and marry older Muslim men.

When a girl’s parents attempt to claim their daughter in court, they are often unable to provide a birth certificate to prove that she is underage, or their papers are rejected by the courts.

As a result, the judge often grants the man custody of the girl, denying the parents any chance of seeing their daughter again.

INCREASING NUMBERS OF ABDUCTED CHRISTIAN GIRLS

While this reality is nothing new in Pakistan, stories of girls in these situations are increasingly coming to light.

International Christian Concern (ICC) is helping Christian girls and their families escape these scenarios, providing safe shelter, legal support, and the care they need to break the cycle.

Below are the stories of five Christian girls whose lives have been upended and threatened because of their society’s acceptance of child brides.

ADAN SABIR

After Adan Sabir rejected his marriage proposal, Usman Ali kidnapped her at gunpoint in July 2025.

When her parents challenged him in court, Ali presented a forged marriage certificate, claiming Adan had converted to Islam and married him of her own free will.

Although the judge allowed Ali to take her home, Adan’s family continued fighting.

They appealed to the Lahore High Court in September 2025.

ADAN HAS RETURNED HOME, BUT HER KIDNAPPER CONTINUES TO STALK HER

After examining evidence of threats and coercion, the court ordered Ali to return Adan to her family.

Earlier this year, she got engaged to a Christian man.

When Ali learned of her engagement, he fired gunshots at her family’s home on April 20.

ADAN’S FAMILY IS FORCED TO LIVE ON THE RUN

Since then, her family has moved from place to place every few days to survive.

“Adan stays silent all day, and at night she wakes up trembling and asks us to pray,” her mother revealed.

“Usman keeps threatening us, saying that if he took her once, he can take her again, and this time he won’t let her escape.”

MAIRA SHAHBAZ

In July 2025, Maira Shahbaz was kidnapped from her home, forced to convert to Islam, and married against her will.

After her parents fought tirelessly to bring her back, a judge ruled against them.

On March 25, Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court declared that Maira was of “mature age” and could legally remain with the 40-year-old man accused of abducting her.

JUDGES RULED MAIRA’S AGE DOCUMENTS ‘UNRELIABLE”

The court validated her conversion and ruled that the marriage was governed by Islamic law.

Maira’s father told the court she was about 13 years old at the time of her abduction and presented documents to prove it.

The judge deemed the records unreliable, saying her appearance suggested she was older.

In another recent case two Constitutional Court judges ordered Sonia Tariq to be placed in a government shelter, while medical tests are carried out to determine her age.  

FARAH SHAHEEN

Six months after 12-year-old Farah Shaheen was taken from her Christian family in Faisalabad, Pakistan, authorities found her chained and confined to a cattle pen at the home of a 45-year-old Muslim man.

The man, Khizar Ahmad Ali, had forced her to convert to Islam and marry him against her will.

When authorities found her in December 2020, Farah had bruises and other marks on her body.

GIRL’S ANKLES AND FEET WERE WOUNDED. SHE WAS IN TRAUMA

“Her ankles and feet were wounded,” Lala Robin Daniel, a local activist, told the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN).

“They were bandaged at the police station. She was in trauma and couldn’t talk about the torture.”

Farah later testified in court, likely out of fear, that she had converted to Islam and married Ali of her own free will.

Her parents feared the court would grant Ali custody of their daughter.

In February 2021, following an eight-month legal battle, a court ordered that she was to be returned to her family.

HUMA YOUNUS

In October 2019, then-14-year-old Huma Younus was abducted from her home in Karachi while her parents were away.

She was forced to convert to Islam and coerced into marrying her captor, Abdul Jabbar.

Despite her family’s desperate attempts to seek justice, the courts disregarded her suffering.

COURT IGNORES PARENTS’ RECORDS THAT HUMA WAS ONLY 14 

Huma’s parents, devout Christians, filed a police report challenging the legitimacy of her abduction, forced conversion, and marriage.

They presented school and baptismal records proving that she was only 14 years old at the time, far below the legal age for marriage under Pakistani law.

ICC hosted a #JusticeforHuma petition that garnered more than 3,000 signatures, calling on Pakistan to return Younus home to her parents.

Despite the outcry, the Sindh High Court shockingly ruled that her marriage was valid under Sharia Law.

LAIBA MASIH

Laiba Masih, a 10-year-old girl from Faisalabad, was abducted by a 40-year-old man practicing polygamy with three wives.

Eventually, he gave her to another man named Shoukat Shah.

Laiba’s parents tirelessly searched for her and eventually found her with Shah.

They approached him and asked him to return their daughter.

MOTHER: “WE WEPT UNCONTROLLABLY”

Shah declined, arguing that he had converted Laiba to Islam; therefore, she could not be returned to her Christian parents.

Christian activists publicly expressed their dismay and assisted the family in filing a complaint against Shah.

While they were able to prove that Laiba was underage, the girl insisted in 2024 that she would remain with her Muslim husband.

“We wept uncontrollably,” Laiba’s mother told the British Asian Christian Association.

“There are no words to describe the agony. It was as if we had been told our daughter had been violated and murdered.”

International Christian Concern is calling on Christians to stand with the ICC as it helps the girls escape and provides the support they need.

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