Pakistan: a court agrees to review a judgment on forced conversion and child marriage

The case brings before Pakistani judges the mechanics of kidnapping, conversion to Islam, and the hasty marriage of Christian minors.

The Fact

On July 17, 2026, Catholic News Agency reports that a Pakistani superior court accepted to review a judgment in a case of kidnapping, forced conversion to Islam, and marriage of a Christian minor. The decision comes after months of mobilization by local NGOs, as the minor requests to return to her Catholic family. We follow this case in the continuation of the Pakistani thread of blasphemy laws, even if the legal motive differs here: it is the personal status law that is instrumentalized.

Our Analysis

The case illustrates the mechanism documented by AED and the Center for Social Justice in Lahore: forced conversion to Islam, often sealed by a hasty marriage, makes returning to the original family legally almost impossible. Islamic law applied in personal status law, combined with Article 295-C of the Penal Code on blasphemy, forms a device of religious assignment. Dignitatis humanae (Vatican II, 1965), at number 2, posits religious freedom as a right based on the dignity of the person: the truth imposes itself only by the force of truth itself. Forcing a child into a religion under the threat of marriage violates this principle at its root.

To Reflect On

The fact that the court simply accepts to review is already a signal. This is not a victory, it is a breach. Pray for the minor, for her family, and for the judiciary that will have to decide under street pressure.