April 27, 2026
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
UN experts have identified a “relentless practice” of abduction and forced religious conversion through marriage, primarily targeting young girls from minority communities.
The communication from UN experts details a systemic and widespread pattern of forced conversions and marriages targeting women and girls from religious minorities in Pakistan. The document highlights significant failures within the security forces and judicial system that contribute to a culture of impunity for perpetrators
Key Findings on Systemic Issues
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Widespread Practice: Minority women and girls are reportedly abducted, moved to different provinces, raped, and forced into marriage and conversion to Islam.
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Judicial and Police Complicity: Law enforcement often refuses to register complaints or actively manipulates records by forcing illiterate family members to sign blank or falsified documents regarding a victim’s age.
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Coerced Testimony: Victims are frequently pressured through threats of violence against themselves or their families to testify in court that they married and converted of their own free will.
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Evidentiary Failures: Courts often accept fraudulent marriage and conversion certificates at face value, even when contradicted by official government records from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
Religious groups affected include at mostly Hindu girls followed by Christian girls. According to findings the primary location of the incidents was Sindh province, where 80% of incidents occurred. Most of the victims targetted were between ages 14 and 18 years – some even younger. Therefore the legal status of consent is legally impossible for children under 18. Apart from this, systemic failure such as weak law enforcement often dismisses complaints or fails to verify the age of victims.
The UN experts – including UN Special Rapporteurs
expressed serious concern about the widespread patterns of abduction and forced religious conversion through marriage (FCM) affecting women and girls belonging to minority communities in Pakistan, as impunity fuels this relentless practice.
“Any change of religion or belief must be genuinely free from coercion, and marriage must be based on full and free consent, which is not legally possible when the victim is a child,” the experts said. “In 2025, about 75 percent of the women and girls affected by FCM were Hindu while 25 percent were Christian. Almost 80 percent of incidents occurred in Sindh province. Adolescent girls between 14 and 18 are particularly targeted and some girls are even younger. Women and girls facing poverty and marginalisation face heightened risks, often being exposed to physical and sexual abuse and exploitation, social stigma and severe trauma.
“These women and girls endure a continuous sense of terror, face coercion and are deprived of their freedom of religion or belief and autonomy under patriarchal and political pressures. This must stop,” the experts said.
They said that the scale and persistence of these grave human rights violations point to systemic discrimination against non-Muslim women and girls who are forced or compelled to convert to Islam in order to marry Muslim men. The experts reiterated their call on Pakistan to intensify efforts to eradicate forced conversions, to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 in all provinces and territories, to criminalise forced religious conversion as a distinct offence and to enforce applicable laws pertaining to human trafficking and sexual violence.
The experts echoed the recommendations of several UN Treaty Bodies, urging a prompt investigation into all allegations impartially and effectively. They called for all perpetrators to be brought to justice.
“We are deeply concerned that law enforcement authorities often dismiss complaints lodged by victims’ families, fail to investigate or prosecute forced conversions in a timely manner, or neglect to properly assess the age of victims,” the experts said.
They also called on Pakistan to provide comprehensive, inclusive and gender-responsive support services for victims, including child-centric protection services such as safe shelters, legal aid, psychological counselling and reintegration programmes.
The experts are concerned that the Pakistani Government has not taken sufficient measures to address the root causes of forced conversion through marriage, such as gender inequality based on patriarchal norms, poverty, social exclusion, discrimination against religion and belief minorities, religious intolerance and rampant impunity.
Recommendations from UN Experts
The experts have urged the Pakistani government to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 across all provinces, criminalize forced religious conversion as a distinct, punishable offense and investigate law enforcement for neglecting cases of abducted minority girls.
Documented Individual Cases
The UN communication also details several specific cases illustrating these patterns:
Mehwish Patras, 19, abducted from college; escaped and later testified that her initial “consent” was given under threat of death to her family.
Chashman Kanwal, 13, initially recorded as 17 by police after they forced her father to sign a blank paper; courts later dismissed petitions for her return despite medical evidence of her age.
Zarvia Pervaiz, 13, Abducted by a family they had sheltered; a magistrate dismissed her case and freed the abductors even though she stated in court she was underage.
Saba Nadeem, 15, Drugged and kidnapped; return to family was possible, but perpetrators remained at large despite rape and illegal marriage charges.
A 14 year old girl was forced to marry and convert under physical abuse; she eventually escaped after being locked in a room by her abductors. Another girl aged 15 was also abducted and married. She had intellectual disabilities but her family was denied a meeting with her by the police; she remains with her abductors and is reportedly facing abuse.
Yet another 15 year old girl was also kidnapped, and her abductors reportedly convinced NADRA to issue fraudulent identity documents listing her age as 19.
Legislative and Structural Gaps
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Shelved Legislation: The Prohibition of Forced Conversions Bill (2021) was effectively blocked by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Council of Islamic Ideology, who deemed it “un-Islamic”.
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Birth Registration: Low rates of birth registration in Pakistan (only 42% for children under five) complicate efforts to legally prove a victim’s age in court.
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Legal Conflict: While the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act sets the minimum age at 18, other provinces maintain 16, and courts sometimes prioritize Sharia interpretations that allow conversion and marriage at any age after puberty.
The UN experts urge the Pakistani government to investigate these allegations, ensure the safety of the named victims, and align domestic laws with international human rights obligations, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and CEDAW. “Freedom of religion or belief and equality must be ensured for all without discrimination,” the experts said.