After being kidnapped by a Muslim merchant, after three months she was located by the justice system and was able to return to her family. Satisfaction of human rights activists with the resolution of this case. However, it is a widespread problem: the need for a law against this type of forced conversion is reiterated.
Faisalabad () – Three months after her abduction, Hoorab Masih, a 13-year-old Christian girl, was located and the courts intervened so that she can return home. The young woman had been kidnapped at the end of December and forcibly converted to Islam by her captor, Muhammad Usman, a Muslim merchant from the town of Chak 7, near Faisalabad (in Punjab). After being questioned by the magistrates, Hoorab was finally able to meet her father, Basharat, and her siblings.
On December 28, 2022, Hoorab Masih went to Muhammad Mustafa’s grocery store (where Usman worked), a usual practice to help his family after the disappearance of his mother. On that day, Usman kidnapped her and took her from Faisalabad to Chiniot, where she was raped, turned, and forced to marry her kidnapper. After her arrest, the author confessed that the marriage with the girl was not legally valid, so on February 11, 2023, the Chiniot Municipal Commission declared that the union was false and illegal.
Before returning home, the girl was sent to a shelter for women victims of abuse and violence (Dar-ul-Aman), where she stayed until March 24, when she told the Faisalabad court that she wanted to live with her father.
In the aftermath of this case, many human rights activists again pressured the government to enact laws punishing forced conversion attempts against religious minorities, and to amend the 1929 Child Marriage Law. is to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 years -both for boys and girls- and to declare unions with minors null and void. Hoorab is not, in fact, the only case of abuse, kidnapping and forced conversion of young women, as human rights defender Lala Robin Daniel explained.
The president of the organization Voice for Justice, Joseph Jansen, drew attention to the need to openly condemn these crimes of coercion, since they affect young minors who do not have the capacity to make those decisions for themselves. Activist Aneel Edger also pointed out that institutional inaction allows the perpetrators to go unpunished: in the case of Hoorab Masih, the trace of the young woman was lost due to flaws in the police search.
Women’s rights activist Nadia Stephen stated that it is imperative to ensure that victims have access to a fair trial. This will have an immediate effect on these criminals and will allow the young women to redeem themselves.
