Listen to the testimony of Savita (not her real name) who recounts her traumatic experiences of being trafficked and forcibly converted. The video is introduced by Maryam Kanwer from CREID.
The Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID), an international consortium led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), has been working on documenting the daily experiences of religious minorities in Pakistan. Women in Pakistan generally, but women from minority backgrounds specifically, suffer from marginalisation and violence across many aspects of their lives.
Forced conversion of young Hindu and Christian women has become frighteningly common, and hundreds of young women, including minor (aged) women, are forcibly converted to Islam and married in an organised way. What happens to these women afterwards is unknown and less researched. Many of these women are also victims of trafficking. CREID partners recently interviewed a young Hindu woman who was 20 years old when she was sold and forcibly converted to Islam and made to marry a Muslim man. She was then sold to two other men.
See also…
Religious inequalities and trafficking in persons: when the state is complicit (news)
Hindu and Christian women a target for forced conversions in Pakistan (news)
Experiences of Intersecting Inequalities for Poor Hindu Women in Pakistan (policy briefing)
Teenage Hindu girl committed suicide after being gang-raped twice (news)
