In Punjab province in Pakistan, a court declined to give the custody of a minor back to her parents, citing that the 14 year old's mental capacity gives more weight than her age.
The Christian minor in the center of the case, named Chashman, was allegedly kidnapped, forced to marry, and convert to Islam, Morning Star News reported. Her father, a Roman Catholic rickshaw driver named Gulzar Masih filed a petition at the Lahore High Court asking to gain custody of his daughter, who was abducted by Muhammad Usman.
The Pakistani court's judge, Tariq Nadeem said in his ruling on Thursday that Islamic jurists consider mental capacity and not the child's age for Islamic conversion. He referred to the fourth caliph of Islam, Hazrat Ali, who "was only 10 when he accepted Islam," the Christian Post reported. Of course, the glaring difference is that Ali was male and the case involves a female who may have been coerced into marriage by her abductor.
Chashman said in her recorded statement before a judicial magistrate that she contracted marriage with Usman of her own free will. The judge said that Muslim jurists considers puberty as a person's age of discernment for religious conversion. But her father, Masih claims that his daughter was abducted, as she never came home on July 27. He later contacted police.
Masih said that following his daughter's disappearance, he received a video and several documents saying that Chashman had run away and converted to Islam of her own free will. In Pakistan, however, sexual intercourse with a girl aged 15 and below is considered rape. Advocates argue that men avoid being punished for such violations by producing fake conversion and Islamic marriage certificates.
In Chashman's case, the Pakistani court judge noted that Masih stated that his daughter's age was 17 years in the First Information Report (FIR), the Christian Headlines reported. However, her real age was 14, as her birth certificate stated she was born on May 13, 2007. Masih said he was so numbed by his daughter's disappearance that he made an error in stating her age in the initial report he filed. This is why in the ruling, the judge said that Chashman was of age and had voluntarily married Usman. Chashman also said in her sworn statement that she was not coerced or kidnapped by Usman.
Between November 2019 to October 2020, there were about 1,000 forced marriages between Christians and Muslims, according to watchdog Open Doors. Pakistani ranked as the fourth with the most abductions of women and children, with about 100 kidnappings in just a year. The government is also failing to address this.
Just last week, a bill that seeks to quash forced conversions was rejected. The Federal Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony objected to several aspects of the Stymie Forced Religious Conversion Bill, rejecting ot back to the Federal Ministry for Human Rights for review. The religious affairs ministry opposed the proposed minimum 18 years for religious conversion, appearance before a judge, and 90-day waiting period, claiming that such restrictions were Anti-Islamic, illegal, and in violation of a person's constitutional rights.
