In a move Feb. 12 seen as a human rights victory, Afzal Baig, a civil judge in Bahawalpur, invalidated the Muslim marriage of 25-year-old Shahida Bibi.
The Pakistani woman’s ordeal began Jan. 11 when co-worker Muhammad Asif Sadiq offered to take her to a place to enroll in a government assistance program, she told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
A relative of the 75-year-old widow incited a group of Muslims after the woman put faith in Jesus during an open-air gospel preaching Feb. 15, a source told Morning Star News.
Police rescued a 12-year-old Catholic girl who had been abducted two months prior by a neighbor and forced to convert to Islam and to marry the captor.
An untold number of Christians were among nearly 1,000 civilians massacred in renewed violence on Syria’s western coast before the government announced a ceasefire.