ICC Note:
A Hindu victim of forced conversion shared her testimony last week at a press conference in Pakistan. Women from religious minority communities are often victims of forced conversion to Islam and forced marriage to their abductors. The Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan estimate as many as 1,000 women are affected by this horrible crime every year in Pakistan. With this woman’s story finally coming to light, will justice be done or will Pakistan’s authorities just continue to ignore this issue?
8/5/2016 Pakistan (Dawn) – How women of marginalized communities are suffering at the hands of influential people and the state has turned a blind eye towards their misery came to light at a press conference held on Friday.
Emmi, 30, and resident of Thatta city, is now looking for justice with the help of a non-governmental body providing legal aid to women and child survivors of violence and abuse.
Ironically, however, the police have not only refused to register an FIR on one pretext or another but also sexually harassed her. There is no action from the government side either that has been informed in writing about the case, according to her.
“When I took my complaint to the Thatta police, nobody took me seriously and the staff there started laughing. I was told to go to the house of DSP Makli for FIR’s registration,” said Emmi at the press conference organised by Madadgaar Helpline in its office.
She accused the police official of sexually harassing her. “I have been exploited for eight years and demand justice,” she said as tears rolled down her face.
Emmi’s troubles started when she became friendly with a man over the phone in 2008. The man that she identified as Shahbaz, a resident of Mirpur Sakro, later convinced her to meet him outside her house and kidnapped her with the help of another man, Ramzan.
“They took me to an unknown place where I was confined in a dark room for 20 days, beaten and raped. Then I was sold and taken to Nawabshah,” she said.
In Nawabshah, Emmy was forced to sign some papers to convert her from Hinduism to Islam and arrange her fake marriage with Javed Khaskheli who forced her into prostitution. She attempted twice to escape and was punished.
“I was burnt and initially admitted to a hospital in Nawabshah and later to the Combined Military Hospital in Hyderabad.
I was told that I should identify myself as the wife of Javed,” she told journalists, adding that she was also poisoned by his tormentors.
According to her, she spent about six years in Hyderabad in confinement during which she also met three girls brought for prostitution. She finally managed to escape on the second day of Eid and reached her home in Thatta. It came as a shock to her that her father, the only close relative he had, died following her kidnapping.
“With the help of a friend, I came to a court in Karachi where someone suggested that I should seek help from Madadgaar,” she explained.
She also showed a picture and the national identity card of one of his tormentors to media persons during the briefing.
Giving his remarks, Advocate Zia Awan said his organization prepared a case for the victim and also contacted relevant police officials in this regard. But the police were not willing to register the case.
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