JULY 22, 2026 17:08
Updated:JULY 22, 2026 20:12
Maria Shahbaz, a 13-year-old Christian who was forced to convert to Islam after being abducted last year, must be provided with access to her family and psychological support, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) demanded while passing a new resolution on the human rights situation in Pakistan earlier this month.
Shahbaz was married to her abductor in March, despite most provinces requiring a person to be at least 18 to marry.
She was abducted on July 26, 2025, by a 30-year-old man and immediately married to him after police in Lahore delayed filing the family’s First Information Report (FIR) and influenced the judge to dismiss their abduction complaint, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Five days after her abduction, the Model Town court of Judicial Magistrate Hassan Sarfaraz Cheema awarded custody of Shahbaz to her captor after accepting falsified documents claiming she was 18 years old, while ignoring evidence provided by her family proving otherwise.
In March 2026, the Federal Constitutional Court upheld the decision, formalizing her marriage.
Forced conversion through marriage is a common issue faced by Christians in Pakistan Twenty-five percent of those forced to abandon their faith in this manner are Christian, while the majority are Hindu women and girls
According to International Christian Concern, as many as 1,000 Christian, Hindu, and Sikh girls are abducted each year.
Only five years before Shahbaz’s abduction, a 14-year-old Christian girl with the exact same name was abducted from Faisalabad.
She was forcibly converted to Islam and married to her abductor but was later able to escape, though courts had earlier ruled in her abductor’s favor, overturning a protection order and returning her to his custody.
The European Parliament urged Pakistan’s authorities to implement the national framework to end child marriage and create a national mechanism for handling complaints from families whose loved ones have been abducted and forced to convert.
Calling on Pakistan to do more to protect minorities, the MEPs demanded that perpetrators be prosecuted, the country’s judicial framework be strengthened, and abducted girls be returned safely.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Deputy Team Leader for South Asia, “Simon,” told The Jerusalem Post, “This timely resolution by the European Parliament exposes a deeply entrenched, systemic pattern of human rights abuses where Pakistan’s judicial system has failed to protect vulnerable girls belonging to religious minority communities.
CSW echoes the European Parliament’s urgent demand that Pakistani authorities immediately secure Maria’s safety, provide her with independent legal and psychological support, and transparently overhaul its legal and enforcement mechanisms to criminalize forced conversions once and for all.
“CSW also welcomes the passage of the Child Marriage Restraint Bill by the Punjab Assembly in April 2026 and urges lawmakers across the country, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, where the legal age for marriage is currently 16 for girls, to follow suit and amend all existing laws governing marriages of Muslims and religious minorities and to standardize the legal age of 18 years for marriage.
“We also urge the government to go further and enact legislation that explicitly criminalizes forced conversion, ensuring that perpetrators and those complicit in such acts are held to account, and introduce legal safeguards to prevent the misuse of religious conversion claims in cases involving minority girls.”
