In October 2020, a 13-year old Pakistani Catholic girl named Arzoo was abucted and forcibly married to a 44-year old Muslim man. Her father is fighting hard in court to have her returned home, but fears the worst. He spoke with Aid To The Church In Need about the ongoing ordeal.

By Clodagh Gallagher

In October 2020, Arzoo Raja, a 13-year old Catholic girl was abducted while playing outside her home in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. She was then forcibly converted to Islam by her abductors and forcibly married to her 44-year old Muslim neighbour Syed Ali Azhar. She has likely had her “marriage” “consummated”, which amounts to child rape. Her parents have appealed to Sindh High Court, which declared the marriage to be invalid and ordered her transfer to a shelter, however this has not yet happened. Her “husband” and captor Ali Azhar was arrested but was later granted bail and retains Arzoo in his custody. The court will not listen to the pleas of her heartbroken parents and instead will only speak to Arzoo and her captor. According to the Lahore-based Center for Social Justice, 162 cases of questionable conversions of under-age minority girls were reported in the media between 2013 and November 2020. Many more cases go unreported. Raja Lal Masih, Arzoo’s father, told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) about his struggle.

“All of my three daughters have served as altar girls; Arzoo was the youngest. She had just entered the 7th Grade. I still have the application to be submitted to the Church for her free stationery and books. We were working parents trying to give a better future to our children.”

On October 13th 2020, after dropping his wife (a nurse) off at work, Raja received a phone call from a relative who told him that Arzoo, his 13 year old daughter, was missing. He filed a missing person’s report at the police station where the staff kept him waiting for hours. Upon returning home, his neighbour initially claimed that his son Azhar had accidentally married Arzoo. Azhar’s family now openly threaten Raja that they will keep Arzoo permanently. Upon realising his daughter had been abducted by his neighbours, Raja called the police. When they arrived, they first had a cup of tea at Azhar’s house before calling to Raja and his concerned family, demanding that he provide the birth certificate for his youngest daughter - a child. That same night, the investigating officer told Raja to accept that his daughter had accepted Islam. He says:

“I was shaken to the core.”    

Since October, Raja, his wife and their extended family have been circling back and forth between the courts and a shelter. They have lost their jobs and are ignored by the Sindh High Court. Raja says that at one point, he was thinking of jumping off the second floor of Sindh High Court, out of sheer desperation. The family have considered dropping their Muslim lawyer, but they cannot risk it. In Pakistan, neither Christian nor female lawyers can legally fight cases of forced conversion. Important politicians and figures have visited the family for support and they are receiving calls from activists abroad. However, none of this carries any weight in Pakistani High Court. Their Muslim lawyer faces 50 opposition lawyers defending the abduction of their 13 year old daughter. Clerics, carrying big books, cite hadiths (prophetic sayings) and examples of the marriages of prophets to underage girls.

Every Saturday, they visit their daughter. When she is alone with her parents, she wants to come home. In front of police, she says that she has read Kalma (the Islamic proclamation of faith) and is now a Muslim. In court, she insists that she married Ali Azhar of her own free will and that she is 18 years old - despite her birth certificate proving that she is actually 13. She is being manipulated and coerced into these false statements. Raja says he and his family are living in agony:

“At Christmas we attended Mass but there was no happiness, shopping or visiting the relatives. A family gave new clothes to our children. An unknown caller later threatened us for filing a case against Azhar. Now we cover our faces before going out. My wife has become diabetic and suffers from hypertension and kidney stones since the tragedy. She only weeps. I am desperate. Please pray for us and our family and for my daughter. May God listen to our prayers.”

ACN regularly supports the work of the Catholic bishops' National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) and support the rehabilitation and reintegration of Christians released from prison. If your heart is moved with compassion for Raja as he fights to free his daughter from abduction and rape of a child, please pray for him as he leads his family in this fight. Please pray for Arzoo, who is only a child and who has been offended and violated in the most evil of ways.