Pakistani Church leaders protest abduction of 16-year-old girl for forced marriage
February 06, 2014
Church leaders in Pakistan are pleading for government help for the family a 16-year-old girl who was reportedly abducted, converted to Islam, and forced to marry a wealthy man.
The practice of abducting young women for marriage is “widespread” in Pakistan, the AsiaNews service reports, and local police acknowledge that Samariya Nadeem was taken against her will.
Police have not intervened, however, because the man who seized the girl has considerable public influence, and because—as one Muslim cleric said—in Pakistan “it is not illegal to abduct and convert non-Muslims.”
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