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By REEMA ABBASI
Whether 12-year-old Anjali became Salma of her own free will remain wrapped in mystery.
This week, the Hindu community, activists and the media have held noisy protests, including a strike in Sukkur, over the forced conversion of three Hindu girls from the Meghwar, Bheel and Kohli clans in Sindh.
One, 12-year-old Anjali, who is in the spotlight because of her age, was sent to a shelter home for 10 days by a judge.
She is said to have been taken to a remote dargah of Bharchoondi Shareef in Interior Sindh, where she allegedly converted to Islam to marry a Muslim man.
Her family says she was abducted; activists suspect the shrine’s keepers were party to her nikah, and the dargah’s keepers say they don’t subscribe to force.
Meanwhile, the incensed Mukhi (leader) of the Meghwars is clear that as Anjali is a child of 12, she cannot marry or convert to any other religion by choice.
“Therefore, the police must ensure the girl is returned to her parents,” says Jaswant Meghwar.
On the other end, rightist voices emphasise that Islam forbids force, be it conversion or marriage.
In Anjali’s context, force comes in many forms – promises of prosperity and defined political claims from landlords or traders, and also through threats, kidnapping and violence.
Either way, the caste system and absence of definitive edicts for religious communities in Pakistan makes easy prey of minority girls.
However, fortune does favour Anjali in other ways – her case is simpler to settle given that under-age marriages are criminalised in the province.
And, with Sindh being the seat of a supposed secular party, PPP, this should come easy.
But the fact that a law for minors has to be evoked to defend the right to a faith is worrisome.
The writer is a Karachi-based author and columnist
Read more: Pakistani Hindus claim girls were abducted and forcibly converted to Islam | Daily Mail Online
Whether 12-year-old Anjali became Salma of her own free will remain wrapped in mystery.
This week, the Hindu community, activists and the media have held noisy protests, including a strike in Sukkur, over the forced conversion of three Hindu girls from the Meghwar, Bheel and Kohli clans in Sindh.
One, 12-year-old Anjali, who is in the spotlight because of her age, was sent to a shelter home for 10 days by a judge.
She is said to have been taken to a remote dargah of Bharchoondi Shareef in Interior Sindh, where she allegedly converted to Islam to marry a Muslim man.
Her family says she was abducted; activists suspect the shrine’s keepers were party to her nikah, and the dargah’s keepers say they don’t subscribe to force.
Meanwhile, the incensed Mukhi (leader) of the Meghwars is clear that as Anjali is a child of 12, she cannot marry or convert to any other religion by choice.
“Therefore, the police must ensure the girl is returned to her parents,” says Jaswant Meghwar.
On the other end, rightist voices emphasise that Islam forbids force, be it conversion or marriage.
In Anjali’s context, force comes in many forms – promises of prosperity and defined political claims from landlords or traders, and also through threats, kidnapping and violence.
Either way, the caste system and absence of definitive edicts for religious communities in Pakistan makes easy prey of minority girls.
However, fortune does favour Anjali in other ways – her case is simpler to settle given that under-age marriages are criminalised in the province.
And, with Sindh being the seat of a supposed secular party, PPP, this should come easy.
But the fact that a law for minors has to be evoked to defend the right to a faith is worrisome.
The writer is a Karachi-based author and columnist
Read more: Pakistani Hindus claim girls were abducted and forcibly converted to Islam | Daily Mail Online
