In one study, the average age of girls forced to marry and convert to Islam in Pakistan was 12.8 years old, according to Jubilee Campaign. (Screenshot from Black Stone documentary)
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Aneeqa Ishaq, a 16-year-old Christian girl in Lahore, Pakistan, took a job as a restaurant cashier for her family’s survival, but it ended with a coworker abducting her, forcing her to convert to Islam and coercing her to marry him, she said.
“I only wanted to help my family,” Aneeqa told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “I never imagined that going to work would change my life like this.”
Aneeqa said she had worked at the restaurant for only three months when a coworker, Majid Ali, began pressuring her to marry him.
“I categorically told him that I was a Christian and would not marry outside my faith,” she recalled. “When he refused to stop, I informed my family about his persistent behavior, and they immediately asked me to quit my job.”
She left the restaurant in August 2025 and later found work as a teacher at a local kindergarten.
“We are a family of four,” she said. “My father, Ishaq Masih, is unemployed, my mother, Rahal Ishaq, works at a garment factory, and my elder sister does not work. I had no choice but to earn an income to help support my family.”
Four months later, on Jan. 4, her life took a devastating turn. Aneeqa was walking to church with her older sister and a female cousin when Ali arrived in a car with two accomplices, pointed a gun at her and forced her into the vehicle, she said.
“Before I could recover from the shock, they covered my face with a cloth and I lost consciousness,” Aneeqa told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
When she regained consciousness, Aneeqa found herself in a house in Bahawalnagar, about 420 kilometers (260 miles) from Lahore.
“Ali and several men with long beards surrounded me,” she said. “When I asked why they had brought me there, one of them said I was so far from Lahore that my parents would never be able to find me. They warned me to obey their instructions or my family and I would suffer the consequences.”
They then forced her to recite the Kalima, the Islamic declaration of faith, before taking her to a local court.
“They forced me to put my thumbprint and signature on documents I was not allowed to read,” she said. “I was also made to sign an affidavit stating that I had converted to Islam and married Ali of my own free will, and that I feared my family.”
For the next six months, they moved her from one location to another, confined her in locked rooms and repeatedly assaulted her whenever she pleaded to return home, she said.
“Ali used to beat me whenever I begged him to let me go back to my family,” she said.
Her ordeal finally took a turn on July 7. While held at the house of Ali’s sister, Aneeqa briefly gained access to a mobile phone and managed to call her older sister, she said.
“I told her I was in Bahawalnagar, shared my WhatsApp location and begged her to rescue me,” she said.
Her family immediately contacted Christian attorney Zunaira Patrick, who agreed to accompany them to Bahawalnagar without delay. Patrick said that when they reached the location later that night and called out for Aneeqa, Ali’s relatives began shouting, attracting neighbors and passersby.
“The situation quickly became hostile after people were told that we were trying to take away a married Muslim woman,” Patrick told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Ali also arrived and started threatening us, insisting that we could not take his wife.”
Fearing the crowd could turn violent, Patrick called police. Officers soon arrived and escorted Aneeqa and the legal team to safety. Police took Aneeqa and her mother to a government shelter for the night and instructed them to appear in court the following day.
“After hearing Aneeqa’s account of what had happened, the judge allowed her to return to Lahore with us,” Patrick said.
She has since filed a petition in a Lahore family court seeking to have the marriage declared void.
“The family is reluctant to pursue criminal charges against Ali at this stage, which is understandable given the trauma they have endured,” she said. “They have changed their rented home and even their phone numbers because they fear being traced.”
Patrick stressed that cases of forced conversion and forced marriage are not merely private family disputes but serious violations of fundamental rights.
“These are grave human rights violations that undermine constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, personal liberty and human dignity,” she said. “Every victim deserves impartial protection under the law, regardless of faith or background.”
Still recovering, Aneeqa said she hoped that sharing her story will help prevent other girls from suffering a similar fate. She urged young Christian women, particularly those driven by poverty to seek employment, to remain vigilant against men who exploit their vulnerable circumstances.
“Such people often lure girls with false promises of love and marriage,” she said. “If a non-Christian man approaches you, inform your family immediately. The longer you try to deal with it alone, the more emboldened the perpetrator becomes. Rejection turns into a matter of ego and revenge for them.”
Aneeqa’s experience reflects a broader pattern documented across Pakistan.
A study titled “Stolen Girls,” unveiled by advocacy organization Jubilee Campaign at the European Parliament on July 14, documented 210 verified cases of abduction, forced religious conversion, child marriage and sexual violence involving Christian and other minority girls between 2019 and 2025.
The report concluded that such abuses were not isolated criminal acts but part of a widespread pattern enabled by fraudulent documentation, legal manipulation and institutional failures that allow perpetrators to evade accountability.
Of the 210 documented cases, 186 (88.6 percent) occurred in Punjab Province, 22 (10.5 percent) in Sindh Province and two (1 percent) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. More than 83 percent of the victims were younger than 18. The report identified 134 victims between the ages of 14 and 17 (63.8 percent), 41 younger than 14 (19.5 percent), and 35 adults over 18 (16.7 percent). It found that the average victim was 12.8 years old, while the average perpetrator was 35.8 years old, creating an average age gap of 23 years.
In several documented cases, the age difference exceeded 30 years.
Pakistan ranked eighth among the 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution in Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, which cited systemic discrimination, mob violence, forced conversions, bonded labor and gender-based abuses. The organization also said weak law enforcement and widespread impunity have enabled perpetrators of anti-Christian violence to escape accountability.
If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.
If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/?
###
© 2026 Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. Articles/photos may be reprinted with credit to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. https://morningstarnews.org
Tweet: https://twitter.com/morningstarnewz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MorningStarNews
Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that relies solely on contributions to offer original news reports of persecuted Christians. By providing reliable news on the suffering church, Morning Star News’ mission is to empower those in the free world to help and to encourage persecuted Christians that they are not forgotten or alone. For free subscription, contact editor@morningstarnews.org; to make tax-deductible donations, visit https://morningstarnews.org/donate/? or send check to Morning Star News, 34281 Doheny Park Rd., # 7022, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624, USA.
The post Christian Girl Struggles to Void Forced Marriage in Pakistan appeared first on Morningstar News.
Become a Christian News Network Supporter...
Dear Reader, has ChristianNews.net been of benefit and a blessing to you? For many years now, the Lord has seen fit to use this small news outlet as a strong influential resource in keeping Christians informed on current events from a Biblical worldview. With much compromise and many falsehoods in modern-day Christianity, we strive to bring you the news by keeping Christ and His word in focus. If you have benefited from our news coverage, please prayerfully consider becoming a Christian News supporter by clicking here to make a one-time or monthly donation to help keep the truth of God's word widely and freely published and distributed.
