A civil society group has failed in an attempt to organize a meeting between the family and a Catholic girl in Pakistan who was kidnapped, wed by a Muslim and converted to Islam, report Fides and the Vatican Insider.

The case of Hatim Farah is just one of 700 similar ones annually, in which Christian girls in the country are kidnapped and converted to Islam, the report adds.

A member of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance told Fides: “We asked, through local authorities, for a private meeting with Farah. The Muslim’s family who has made her his wife says that she is consenting. If they are sure and if this were true, why prevent the family and lawyers from seeing and listening to her version directly? This impediment for us is really suspicious”.

The lawyers of the organization, founded by the late Catholic minister Shabhaz Bhatti, had asked a court to preside over a hearing to listen to Farah, her family and the Muslim family involved. The meeting fixed by the judge should have been held on July 4, but the other counter-party was not present, nor was Farah.

The family fears for their daughter and claimed that the judge has invited them to “withdraw their complaint and consider the case closed”.

Separately, Fides reports from a religious sister in the country’s Punjab region that “Christians are truly dehumanized, we are treated as objects and as goods to sell. We live in a system where only the powerful have rights”.

“For us Christians, justice in courts is not guaranteed … it is a serious concern in the rule of law, and this is a major cause of suffering and persecution of Christians in Pakistan,” said the religious who requested anonymity.

She ministers to Christian girls abused, kidnapped, raped or forced into Islamic marriages.

“Farah’s case is a very sad story. And, unfortunately, not unique or rare. At least 700 are registered per year and we manage to save only a few dozen girls … When a Christian family comes crying to us, informing us of a case we go to village leaders for their support, crucial for the so-called ‘law of the jirga’ (assembly), customary in the villages.

“Sometimes they listen and help us. But when it comes to powerful Muslim clans, they say they cannot do anything.

“So criminal law should be applied, but the point is that trial courts are corrupt and totally manipulated by political men, Islamic fundamentalist leaders, or by large landowners.”

FULL STORY

ASIA/PAKISTAN – APMA mediation fails in the case of Farah, the Catholic Islamized by force (Fides)

In Pakistan mediation for Farah has failed (Vatican Insider)

ASIA/PAKISTAN – A nun from Punjab: “Christians dehumanized, in a system that only protects the rights of the powerful” (Fides)