13-year-old Christian girl asks Pakistani court to free her from alleged abductor and forced marriage

A 13-year-old Christian girl is seeking a new hearing in Pakistan after a previous court ruling returned her to the custody of the 30-year-old man accused of abducting her, forcing her to convert to Islam, and marrying her against her will.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International is supporting Maria Shahbaz’s case and urging the Pakistani judiciary to reverse the earlier decision. According to the Christian legal organization, Shahbaz remains with Shehryar Ahmad while her attorneys wait for a hearing date on a petition challenging the ruling.

ADF International reported Shahbaz was raised in a Christian family and abducted in 2025. She was allegedly forced to renounce Christianity and enter an Islamic marriage with Ahmad, exposing her to continuing abuse and exploitation.

The case reached Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court in February. Rather than return Shahbaz to her parents, the court placed her back in Ahmad’s custody without independently verifying her age, according to ADF International.

A previous investigation had already determined that Shahbaz was a minor and that documents purporting to establish the marriage were forged, according to the organization. Pakistani law does not permit a child to consent legally to marriage or religious conversion.

“Maria is only 13 years old,” ADF International Asia Advocacy Director Tehmina Arora said in a July 9 statement, arguing that the court must now correct the injustice.

Local attorney Lazar Allah Rakha, who is following the case, said the court returned a child to the man accused of taking her without resolving the questions surrounding her age and documents.

“That cannot be allowed to stand,” Rakha said.

If decided in Shahbaz’s favor, the case would establish an important precedent for Pakistani courts confronting the recurring abduction, conversion, and forced marriage of Christian and Hindu girls.

ADF International said perpetrators frequently abduct girls from minority families, fabricate conversion and marriage certificates, and then present those documents to courts as evidence that the children left their families voluntarily. Families may struggle to persuade police to open investigations, while courts sometimes accept contested documents without adequately examining the girls’ age or the possibility of coercion.

The European Parliament placed Shahbaz’s case at the center of a human-rights resolution adopted last week. European lawmakers called for her to receive access to her family, independent legal representation, and psychological support, while urging Pakistani authorities to ensure that she can return home safely.

The Parliament described Shahbaz’s experience as emblematic of broader violations against girls from Pakistan’s religious minorities. It called on the government to investigate cases involving minors or alleged coercion independently, prosecute perpetrators, create a national system for complaints from affected families, and strengthen enforcement against child marriage.

According to figures cited by the European Parliament, approximately 75% of women and girls affected by forced conversion through marriage in Pakistan during 2025 were Hindu, while approximately 25% were Christian, the Christian Post reported.

“Maria’s situation is urgent and she must be brought home,” Rakha said, warning that allowing the previous ruling to stand would further undermine minority communities’ confidence in the justice system.

As Zeale News previously reported, a Christian woman in Punjab received a written threat in April ordering her to appear at the Lahore High Court and marry a Muslim man or be killed. Police arrested the suspect after her family filed a complaint.

That report cited research documenting at least 515 cases of women and girls abducted and forcibly converted between 2021 and 2025. Half of the victims were between 14 and 18 years old, while approximately one in five were younger than 14.

ADF International has supported several girls in comparable cases. One Christian teenager escaped after being abducted, beaten, raped, and forced to place her fingerprints on marriage documents. Another girl’s family was initially told that she had converted and married voluntarily, but attorneys later discovered that the documents had been fabricated.

Punjab recently adopted legislation setting the minimum marriage age at 18 and directing courts to place children’s best interests first. ADF International welcomed that reform but argued that statutes will protect vulnerable girls only if police and judges enforce them consistently.