Geeta Kumari has been living with her uncle in her native village in Pakistan's Sindh province for two months. Earlier she lived in her house in Hyderabad, another city in Sindh. Geeta has been sent here so that she can feel safe and recover from her pain. Geeta claims that she was kidnapped and kept in prison for two years. Geeta's face was not clearly visible from her veil. She was wearing a black shirt with flowers on it.
Geeta claims that she was abducted by a Muslim rickshaw driver about three years ago while she was on her way to work. She was given sedation medicines and his thumb impressions were taken on some papers while she was unconscious.
She says, "There were two people in the rickshaw who gave me bullets, I don't know whether he married me or not but later when I regained consciousness, he threatened to kill my family and asked me to give a statement in support of him. ""I was scared so I told the court as he said, I have not accepted Islam. I don't even know Kalma, then how can it be true to convert to Islam."
It took two years for Geeta to escape from there. She describes the place as the kidnapper's prison. The man later sought custody claiming himself to be Geeta's husband, but the Hyderabad (Sindh) court granted the custody to Geeta's parents.
There have been several alleged cases of forced conversion of girls, especially Hindus and Christians, in Pakistan. Human rights organizations around the world have been condemning Pakistan for the last decade.
Exact data on the extent of forced conversion is not available, but according to the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) in Lahore, they have information on 246 cases of alleged religious conversions and crimes against minorities.
Peter says that most of the underage girls from minority communities are forced to convert to religion by seduction or force. Most of the girls coming from low-income families are victims of this. And when she is produced in court, she is usually surrounded by Muslim men.
That's why she doesn't make statements against him. Deciding to go back to family means apostasy, and in Pakistani society, apostasy means risking one's own life. Robin Daniels works for the National Minorities Coalition. He is helping various Christian families who are fighting in courts over alleged immoral conversion of their girls.
Robin believes that the entire system is against minority girls. There are many loopholes in the law, taking advantage of which forced conversion is done and criminals are saved. He says, "The law does not say anything about the custody of the girl after the kidnapper is out of the clutches. Our girls are often sent to shelter homes."
"When a stolen vehicle is caught, its owner is still traced and handed over to its rightful owner, but the system of law is such that girls who are forcibly converted to Islam are sent to shelter homes." "If the girl is an adult and she has not changed her religion of her own free will, then why can't she be allowed to meet her family for the rest of her life."
Social activist Peter Jakob believes that most religious conversions, carried out to commit crimes in the name of religion, have nothing to do with religion. He says, "If there is a change of religion in any area, then the criminals take the girl to a police station outside the limits of that area, or produce that girl in a court of another city or state. What about that? Understandable. If birth certificates and marriage certificates are being tampered with, then what is if this is not a crime?"
Almost all the cases of religious conversion are coming from Sindh and Punjab provinces. Most of the girls in Sindh belong to Hindu families and in Punjab the cases of Christians are high. Religious organizations in remote areas of Sindh claim to have converted hundreds of Hindu women to Islam. Most of these girls come from small castes like Bhils, Meghwars and Kohlis. Organizations working for the rights of minorities and the Hindu community claim that religious conversions are being done forcibly or those girls go along with Muslim youths.
The heads of these religious institutions have been accused of tampering with the legal process. However, these religious organizations have been denying such allegations. Pir Mian Abdul Khaliq (Mian Mithu) of Bharchandi Dargah in Deharki, Sindh province, denies allegations of conversion of girls who run away with a Muslim youth. He says, "Forcible conversion is forbidden in our religion."
" I am kafir, can I go against what the Prophet has said. If I go against him, I am not fit to be called a Muslim, I will be thrown out of Islam." He claims that he converts only those girls who happily accept Islam, and that it is his religious responsibility to do so. They have no vested interest.
"I work to please Allah, we spend thousands of rupees from our pocket. A family offered me nine crore rupees on live TV. In exchange for a girl (who wanted to convert to Islam), I said this. Tax forbidden that no matter how much money you give, I will not take it, our religion is not for sale.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has emphasized many times that he is committed to the protection of minorities and that everyone in the country has equal rights. Pakistan has denied the allegations of religious conversion at the international level. They say that this is happening because of the propaganda being spread by India to tarnish the image of Pakistan.
But despite many alleged cases of forced conversion in the media, no database has been created by the government about it so that its prevalence can be known. Parliamentary Secretary for Human Rights Chand Malhi says that it is the responsibility of the state governments to create a database of such cases.
Malhi told that the PTI government led by Imran Khan is in the process of enacting a law to solve the problem. A parliamentary committee was formed to take the suggestions. The committee has given its suggestions and the ministries concerned are working to prepare a draft bill.
He says that there is an agreement in the committee that conversion is the right of an adult, but it should not happen with young people and there should be a government mechanism for its conversion and the conversion done under this should get legitimacy needed. Other people or institutions should not have the right to convert.
Malhi hopes that soon this bill will be passed and will take the form of law. He has also admitted that if this effort fails, then there will be difficulties for the Hindu community in Pakistan. He also said that the committee has recommended raising the minimum age for conversion to 18 years in the country.
In the past, the Sindh assembly had tried to enact a law on the minimum age for conversion, but it faced strong opposition from the fundamentalists. In 2016, the bill was passed unanimously but religious groups objected to the age limit for conversions, calling it un-Islamic and threatened to surround the assembly to prevent the governor from signing the bill.
In 2019, a revised version of the Minorities Protection Bill was introduced in the Sindh Assembly by Hindu member Nand Kumar. Again, religious and political parties protested, arguing that the government, in the name of protecting minorities, was creating barriers to those who wish to convert.
Like and Follow us on :
