24 year old Nurse kidnapped converted to Islam and forcefully married in Rahim Yar Khan

A 24-year Christian Nurse from Rahim Yar Khan was abducted by a Muslim man who, after forcing her to convert to Islam, also forcefully married her.
Zeehan Iliyas, a young Muslim man works as an office boy in United Bank Ltd, Her family has effortessly tried to get her back but their voices have fallen to deaf ears of the law.

The young 24 yeard old girl was training to be a nurse in the orthopaedic ward of the Sheikh Zayed Medical College, last Sunday Farah was abducted from the Jinnah Park by Zeeshan and his two brothers Imram and Gulfam, which is located near her college 


“This [Muslim] family has a history of kidnapping young Christian women and forcing them to convert,” said Bilquees Marriam, Farah’s mother, adding that they act with impunity because they are backed by a local Member of the National Assembly, who belongs to the ruling party.


The woman and her other six children went to the police to file the abduction report, but the duty officer refused to take a First Information Report (FIR).


The local Christian community rallied around the kidnapped woman’s family and began protesting against the violence against her and the complicity of local law enforcement. Initially, police tried to disperse the crowd but following the intervention of the superintendent of police, a FIR application was accepted and an investigation was launched.


However, the delay gave Farah Hatim’s kidnappers time to take the young woman to a district court under duress so that she could state that she had converted to Islam and would marry Zeehan Iliyas.


The judge, who failed to cross-examine the woman, especially with regards to the wounds to her body, simply accepted her statement as “valid”.


Zahid Hussain, the Hatim family lawyer, slammed the gross violation of the Farah’s rights and the faulty legal procedures. He said that when “someone makes a statement before a court, the judge must question the applicant alone in order to determine whether his or her decision was made under duress or by consent. In this case, the courtroom was full of people, including those who actively took part in her abduction and assault. The judge also ignored her wounds.  All this shows that she was forced to sign the statement”.


Last Tuesday, Farah’s family filed a second complaint, which the police has so far failed to pursue.


Forced conversions are common in Pakistan and usually supported by powerful people and clerics where girls are threatened and beaten to dictate as told in court and many times law enforcement agencies are bribed and the girls never return home.