ShekinahToday 26th October 2012: The on-going saga for religious Minorities in Pakistan is an open secret to the World. Women in general are considered as second class citizens in Pakistan.
The constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan mandates equal rights both to men and women but in practice women are denied any equality to their male counterpart. The complexity of equality is worsened with the involvement of the women from non-Muslim backgrounds. Their rights are mired in the dust of religion.
They are subject to forced conversion, abductions, killing and discrimination of all kinds which is a daily treatment for non-Muslim women who are already impoverished and neglected section of the society.
Members of religious communities are taken as a plaything in the hands of Muslim gods. They are chased and killed playfully like wonton kids kill butterflies in their hands.
Due to the hydra of ignorance women are seen as curse in Pakistan’s primitive mind set. The curse gets stronger if the woman (Target) comes from religious community in Pakistan.
Commenting on the plight of Christian women in Pakistan According to Fides, an official Vatican News Agency states:” Christian girls are considered goods to be spoiled at leisure. Abusing them is a right. According to the community’s mentality it is not even a crime. Muslims regard them as spoils of wars”.
The ill-treatment of non Muslim women in Pakistan has a long sad history which is rampant. The incidents of violence, harassment, forcible conversions, killings, rape and abductions are being reported almost every day. More often than not such happenings are either patronized by local influential political Muslim members of the society. The legal system does not offer much help to either the victims or to the affected families because of the fear and pressure from the local people. The justice is denied.
The most recent example of such treatment is Rebecca Masih, a young Christian health worker who was intercepted on her way to work in Sindh Province of Pakistan by three armed men who kidnapped her on 2nd October 2012.
Rebecca Masih was later forcibly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man Manzar Deher. In spite of Rebecca’s father Younis Masih request against the forcible conversion and marriage in the local Police he is still seeking for justice. Shumaila Bibi another young Christian was reported to abducted and forcibly converted to Islam on September 24.
According to ShekinToday Representatives in Pakistan another sad Incident happened in August, 2012 when a Christian girl Muqadas Kainat 12 year old was raped by five Muslim men before she was found dead in fields in Sahiwal in Punjab Province.
There are around 7 Million Hindus live in Sindh Province of Pakistan who are living under volatile climate of fear and Harassment where Hindu girls are forcibly converted and later married to Muslim men. Manisha Kumari, 14 year old and Rinkle Kumari 19 year old Hindu girls were forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men alone in 2012.
This on-going tragedies of violence, rape, forcible conversion, killings and degrading inhuman treatment to the non-Muslim women in Pakistan is unconstitutional and against human rights.
ShekinahToday 