The situation for Christians in Pakistan is dismal – especially young females who, in addition to the threat of sex trafficking, must deal with marriage to abductors and forced conversion to Islam.
OneNewsNow has reported on the problem with Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which often consist of false charges against Christians that carry the death penalty. About 200 Christians are jailed for that reason – and perhaps the most high-profile case was the incarceration of Aasia Bibi, who was charged with blasphemy and imprisoned for ten years before being released earlier this year.
Another serious problem in the South Asia country is the kidnapping of young Christian girls who are forced to convert to Islam and marry their abductor. Dede Laugesen of Save the Persecuted Christians describes the dismal situation for those young girls.
"More than a thousand [of them] every year in Pakistan are abducted from their families and forcibly converted," Laugesen reports. "Christian marriages in Pakistan cannot be registered, [but] Muslim marriages are seen as lawful – and often times the courts will side with the Muslim abductor."
If the girl is underage, she adds, the marriage certificate will reflect her age as sufficiently old enough to qualify.
Laugesen updates the situation on another serious issue reported by OneNewsNow earlier this year.
"The trafficking of young Pakistani Christian girls to China under the guise of sham marriages [continues]," she states. "And once these girls get to China, they don't know the language, they cannot ask for help, and they're often sold as sex slaves to the highest bidder."
Christians in Pakistan are often marginalized and given menial jobs such as work in sewers, and many succumb to health problems related to their work. The families are so poor they often go into debt and become indentured slaves to the lender for generations to come. There are laws against each form of persecution, but Laugesen says they are routinely ignored.
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Christians in the North African nation of Eritrea are persecuted by the government but there are now reports that even health care clinics are in danger.