16-year-old Christian girl, victim of rape and forced conversion

A 16-year-old Christian girl from Pakistan was a victim of rape and forced conversion after being kidnapped.

Once again, Pakistan has witnessed the abduction, rape and forced conversion of a young Christian girl. The 16-year-old, whose identity is being withheld due to security and protection laws, has revealed all that happened after her rescue, from the kidnapping to repeated rapes and forced prostitution by her captor.

She, who is from the Mananwala area of ​​Punjab province, Pakistan, was kidnapped on May 19, 2025, by a married man named Muhammad Asim, 28. The girl was held captive by this person for three months and after being freed from her kidnapper, she said: "I was going to a school to prepare for exams and take training courses when Asim noticed me. He first tried to lure me with gifts, but when I refused, he started harassing me.

"After he kidnapped me, Asim prepared fake documents for conversion and forced marriage by taking my fingerprints on white papers, claiming that I had voluntarily converted to Islam and married him. He took me to his house, but his first wife did not accept this marriage and left the house."

The 16-year-old girl continued: "In the following days, Asim repeatedly raped me and, together with his mother, put me under psychological pressure to believe that my family would no longer accept me. They also forced me to take drugs to make me lose my thinking power. The abuse did not end there, Asim would take me to different places and force me to sleep with other men and use me as a means of earning money."

"When I resisted him, he subjected me to severe physical abuse. I was trapped in hell and every day I asked God to kill me."

The family of this 16-year-old girl initially refused to pursue the matter officially due to fear and negative reactions in their predominantly Muslim community when their daughter was abducted, and despite all their efforts to find their daughter, they faced police indifference.

Catherine Sapna, a representative of the True Spirit of Christians organization, intervened in their case and helped them. After the girl's family failed to reach a conclusion with the help of their community elders, the organization stepped in to help the family and, after continuous legal proceedings, forced the court to take action in the case of their daughter's kidnapping. Sapna said: "The police initially called it a love marriage and refused to register a kidnapping report. This is a recurring pattern in cases involving religious minorities in Pakistan."

The organization's follow-up led the police to arrest Asim and the girl in mid-August; but the victim girl was humiliated in the hospital and detention center after her arrest. The judge in the case ultimately ordered her temporary release after observing the young girl's serious physical and mental condition to receive medical care, even though she was only a victim, not a perpetrator.

Catherine Sapna emphasized that this case is another example of widespread violence against Christian girls and other religious minorities in Pakistan. She added: "Our priority is to improve the physical and mental health of the victim and to pursue the perpetrators of this crime."