Federal Shariat Court in Islamabad has dismissed a petition challenging the validity of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013. The law was passed in 2013 and sets the minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls at 18 years. The law, it was argued by the petitioner, was against the injunctions of the Quran and Sunnah. The law has been in place for almost 10 years now and is one of the few such laws passed by the Pakistani legislature.
The FSC said that the law was totally in line with the commands of the Quran and Sunnah. Citing verses that talk about the protection of children’s rights from Islamic literature, the court upheld the law. The law has received criticism from the hardliners in Pakistan who believe that Child Marriage is not haram according to Sunnah.
Pakistan in general and Sindh in particular has had a history of brutal atrocities on children. OpIndia has covered many such news reports where Hindu minor girls were abducted, raped, forcibly converted, and married to Muslim men. In 2022, while Pakistan was going through devastating floods which brought the country to its knees, a Hindu girl was gang-raped under the pretext of offering her food, this happened in Sindh too. There are hundreds of such cases where minor girls (mostly Hindu) are abducted and raped and then forced to undergo Niqah with their perpetrator.
The law in question is supposed to curb such barbaric acts, and although it can most amply be characterized as a failure especially if you look at it from the standpoint of Hindu girls in the Province of Sindh, at least the legislature of Sindh showed the courage of going against Islamic hardliners and passed such a law.
The arguments for or against the law were cited from Islamic literature, not one argument was made citing human rights or other modern progressive ideas. This testifies to the deep Islamization of the common populace as well as the Judiciary in Pakistan.
In October of 2022, a minor girl who was raped and converted to Islam by a Muslim man was ordered by the Court to return to her abductor. Following social media outrage, the decision was reversed with great reluctance. The OpIndia report about this incident can be read here. The fate of Christians and Ahmadiyas is no different, they are also constantly subjected to raped, forced conversions, and forced marriages. In 2019 a Christian girl who was just 14 years old was raped, converted, and married to her abductor.
Huma Younus, 14-year-old Christian girl from Karachi, kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to her abductor Abdul Jabbar. Huma, a class 8 student, was taken to Dera Ghazi Khan and papers of her conversion/marriage were sent to her parents. #endenforcedconversions pic.twitter.com/7NnjJZK7VP
— Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) December 10, 2019
Mehwish Maria, a UNICEF official in Pakistan said that “Child marriage is a human rights violation. Despite laws against it, this harmful practice remains widespread”. Quoting the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017-18, she said that child marriage prevalence in the country is 18%. She also underscored that child marriages increase during humanitarian emergencies. She said, “Historically, women and girls are disproportionately affected during emergencies and it’s mandatory to sensitize communities for birth and marriage registration,”.
It would be naive to expect that Pakistan would be able to control such issues any time soon but the global community has to put pressure on Pakistan so that the rights of children are not snatched from them, and they are allowed to grow in a safe and sensitized environment. As far as the fate of Hindu girls is concerned, the future looks gloomy. The Indian state all this while was shying away from commenting on these issues, only recently has our approach toward Pakistan changed and we have become more vocal about atrocities on Hindus in Pakistan.
Constant pressure by the global community seems to be the sine qua non to curb Child marriages in Pakistan, laws are helpful but only to an extent. And in a nation like Pakistan where the state is run by a bloated Military which is unconcerned about such issues, global intervention becomes a must.
