Thread by @AuratMarchKHI

One of the oft-repeated talking points by our government officials is that religious minorities enjoy complete freedom in the country. But reality can be different. If you ask religious minorities - particularly Christians & Hindus -

#AuratMarch2021 #PatriarchyKaPandemic

what their biggest problems are, the first answer is always going to be the forced conversions of underage girls & women from their communities.

Voluntary religious conversion, which is recognised as a human right, is a one-sided affair here; it involves force & usually entails

child marriages whereby only religious minorities are seen to be converting - thus proving the extent of how 'voluntary' they are. Although there are girls who choose to willingly convert & boldly testify the same in court, most of the ones who've been forced to convert also..

claim that they've converted willingly due to the threats posed to their safety by their abusers otherwise. What happens to the women who willingly marry afterwards is another matter of concern, with many of them reporting abuse & most gone missing.

Conversion historically has also been a tool of patriarchal societies where majority communities seek complete or partial conversion of religious minorities in a systematic manner. In achieving this end, young vulnerable girls become the easiest prey through grooming..

& then overall societal support.

Many recent forced conversion cases have involved girls as young as 13 years of age. We have seen parents of these girls pleading & crying for return of their girls, who should be in school & not in unlawful custody of men much older than them.

Last year, we saw a 14 year old Hindu girl testifying in court that she made a mistake by marrying a Muslim men and thankfully the court let her be reunited with her parents But before that, there were groups that threatened to kill the girl if she returned to her parents.

Recently, we also saw a Hindu woman from Thar telling court that she wanted to go back to her Hindu husband & young child; although she, too, was allowed to do that, most such cases don't see a similar fate.

In November, Sindh High Court nullified the marriage of a 15 year old

Christian child, Arzoo Raja, to a 45 year old man as a violation of Child Marriage Restraint Law. The case was perhaps first time such a marriage was declared illegal under existing laws. All these cases have heightened a sense of insecurity among religious minorities, with many

parents reluctant to send their girls outside home. A law banning forced conversions is still pending in Sindh Assembly with the ruling party only giving promises to get it passed.

We call on the authorities to engage religious minorities in a more meaningful way in order to

not only protect underage girls but to ensure force is not used against any woman. We also demand authorities to institute a system which would register all such marriages and the whereabouts of the converted women could be traceable.

Also, the security of girls and women who want to go back to parents should be ensured so that we could end this culture of impunity for abusers.