Pakistani Court Issues Historic Ruling to Annul Forced Marriages of Christian Women
Pakistan’s court issued a historic ruling ordering the annulment of forced marriages of Christian women.
Pakistan’s court issued a historic ruling ordering the annulment of forced marriages of Christian women with Muslim men. Through this ruling, the court annulled the marriage of “Shahida Bibi,” an 18-year-old Christian girl who was forcibly married to a Muslim man, and restored her religious rights to her.
According to this ruling, she was granted freedom of choice in religion and the right to return to her family, which represents a glimmer of hope in the fight against forced marriages and human rights violations in the country.
Shahida described her painful life story as follows: “At age 11, after my mother married a Muslim man, I fled, but was then forced to marry his brother and gave birth to two children.” Child marriage, which is sanctioned in Islamic law, constitutes a clear violation of human rights.
The “Bahawalpur” civil court issued a historic and unexpected ruling in February 2025 in response to the forced marriages of Christian women, through which Shahida Bibi’s forced marriage was also annulled and her identity documents were confirmed with her Christian religion listed and returned to her.
According to reports published by ADF International, Pakistan is a country with a Muslim majority population where over a thousand girls from minority communities are forcibly converted to Islam and married each year, and many of them are unable to escape due to threats against themselves and their families.
The European Union also issued a statement in January 2025 warning about the state of human rights in Pakistan. The statement included “blasphemy laws, forced religious conversion, and religious persecution and torture.” The statement read: “Failure to address these issues could negatively impact Pakistan’s trade relations with the union.”
U.S. lawmakers and human rights organizations also called on Pakistan to implement reforms to protect religious freedom and safeguard vulnerable communities against forced marriages and religious conversion.
