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. As a result,
the judge often grants the man custody of the girl, denying the parents any
chance of seeing their daughter again.
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 Sabir rejected his marriage
proposal, Usman Ali kidnapped her at gunpoint on July 3, 2025. When her parents challenged him in court, Ali
presented a forged marriage certificate, claiming Sabir had converted to Islam
and married him of her own free will. Although
the judge allowed Ali to take Sabir home, Sabir’s family continued fighting. They appealed to the Lahore High Court in
September 2025. After examining evidence
of threats and coercion, the court ordered Ali to return Sabir to her family.
Earlier this year, Sabir got engaged to a Christian man. When Ali learned of her engagement, he fired gunshots at her family’s home on April 20. Since then, her family has moved from place to place every few days to survive.
Maria Shahbaz
In July 2025, 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, 2026, Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court declared that Shahbaz
was of “mature age” and could legally remain with the 40-year-old man accused
of abducting her. The court validated
her conversion and ruled that the marriage was governed by Islamic law.
Shahbaz’s father told the court she was about 13 years old at the time of her abduction and presented documents to prove it. Judges deemed the records unreliable, saying her appearance suggested she was older.
Farah Shaheen
Six months after 12-year-old 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, forced Shaheen to
convert to Islam and marry him against her will. When authorities found her on December 5,
2020, she had bruises and other marks on her body. “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.”
Shaheen 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 Shaheen to be returned to her family.
Huma Younus
On October 10, 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. Younus’ 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 Pakistan’s Sindh Child
Marriage Restraint Act of 2013. 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 since Younus had already had her first menstrual cycle,
her marriage was valid under Sharia law.
Laiba Masih
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. Shah declined, arguing
that he had converted Masih 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 Masih was underage, Masih insisted in 2024 that she would remain with her Muslim husband. “We wept uncontrollably,” Masih’s mother, Balqees Bibi, 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.”
Stories like these are all too common in Pakistan.
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