A 13-year-old Christian girl’s custody was given to her husband by Sindh High Court in Pakistan on Monday. According to local media reports, the girl had accepted Islam willingly and did not proclaim to have been kidnaped or forced to marry.
In the clip shared by Pakistan’s Daily Times, the girl was seen sitting, while another woman pleaded with her. The girl – Arzoo Raja was kidnapped from her home on October 13 in Karachi’s Railway Colony. Soon after, an FIR was registered at Sindh court. Sindh police reached out to the family two days after the girl was abducted, and informed them that the kidnapper, Azhar Ali, was able to show a marriage certificate which claimed that was over 18 years old. The abductor is married with children. Naveed Walter, the President of Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP) said that minority girls belonging to Christian and Hindu groups are converted to Islam forcefully and wedded off to Muslim men.
Sindh High Court has given the custody of Arzoo Raja, a 13-year-old Christian girl to her husband because, she has accepted Islam willingly and she told that she was not abducted even didn't force to marry. pic.twitter.com/oQHhI3E2MP
— Daily Times (@dailytimespak) November 1, 2020
According to the HRFP fact-finding team, citing October 27, 2020 proceedings of the Sindh High Court, the records of the girl were manipulated to make her appear as an 18-year-old. Also, it was shown her statement of free will whereby she asserted to have married of her own will.
It was also found that Arzoo’s picture was also replaced on legal documents, as pointed out by her mother Rita.” In court premises, Arzoo was refused from meeting her mother as she was stopped by Ali Azhar,” said Naveed Walter. He said, “The age of the girl is 13 and it is proved by her school records and certificates, national database states her date of birth as July 31, 2007, and the church register also shows the same age but she has been falsely presented as an adult in court including a conversion certificate from the Madressah Jamia Islamia and a marriage certificate with her new name Arzoo Fatima.”
The investigation found that the girl’s photo was replaced on legal documents, a concern raised by her mother Rita. The spokespeople for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), including Pakistan, called for stricter implementation of the Kathmandu Call to Action to End Child Marriage in Asia, which was first formulated in 2014.
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