Hear Her Cries

FOREWORD BY MAIRA SHAHBAZ

I was walking near my home in Madina Town, in Pakistan’s Punjab Province one afternoon when some suspicious-looking men approached me. As a 14-year-old Christian girl in a country where non-Muslims suffer harassment, I was frightened. The men dragged me into a car and blindfolded me.

I was tortured and raped. It was recorded and a movie was made of it. I was blackmailed. I was forced to sign a certificate to show I had converted and had married my abductor. I was told that if I refused, my family would be killed. When my mother went to the police to get me back, the matter went before Lahore High Court. The court ruled in my abductor’s favour and I was sent back to live with him. Two weeks later, at midnight, I ran away and went to the police. I confirmed that I was a Christian. But the police supported my opponent, the man who had abducted me and who was threatening to kill me. My abductor and his supporters ― which include members of the hard-line Islamic party Tehreek-e- Labbaik Pakistan ― called for me to be killed. My whole family ― my mother, my sisters, my brother and I ― are in hiding, locked in a room. Suspects have been spotted in the area asking about us. I know there are so many other girls and young women, not only Christians but those from other faiths too, who suffer abduction, rape, forced conversion and marriage, not just in Pakistan but in many other countries around the world. Who will help us? Who will speak up for us? Who cares about our situation?

Thanks so much to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) and the many thousands of people who have done their best to help us and protect us. I am grateful for your prayers. I am also grateful for the release of this report Hear Her Cries: The Kidnapping, Forced Conversion and Sexual Victimization of Christian Women and Girls. Please read the report and listen to the Christian girls and women who are kidnapped and who are forced to change their religion and get married.

For too long, the world has remained silent.

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