A Pakistani court granted custody of a kidnapped 13-year-old Christian girl to her adult male captor, disregarding another court’s ruling that their supposed “marriage” was not legal, an attorney stated.
Shahbaz Masih said his 13-year-old daughter was abducted July 29, 2025, by a 30-year-old married Muslim neighbor in Lahore, reports Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. The girl then was forced to convert to Islam and marry her captor.
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On Feb. 3, Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court gave custody to the Muslim man even though another court had declared the marriage illegal. Instead, the FCC accepted the girl’s statement that she converted and married willingly, said Safdar Chaudhry of Raah-e-Nijaat Ministry, which is giving legal assistance to the girl’s parents.
Chaudhry and the girl’s parents believe she made the statement under duress.
According to Christian Daily-Morning Star, “Human rights advocates say such cases follow a recurring pattern in Pakistan where girls — some as young as 10 — are abducted, forcibly converted and sexually abused under the cover of Islamic ‘marriages.’ … Courts frequently disregard documentary evidence of age and return the children to their alleged kidnappers as ‘legal wives.'”
World Watch
Pakistan is No. 8 on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List of the 50 places most difficult to be a Christian.
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