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“WE only facilitate their wish. We don’t impose our own will on them.” The bland statement masks a world of obfuscation as a result of which the marginalised of the country receive what, sadly, experience has taught them to expect: to be either directly victimised, or live in circumstances in which they feel victimised.
The statement by the spokesperson for the Bharchundi Shareef shrine in Daharki, Sindh, was in reaction to questions raised by the family of Anjali Kumari Meghwar about the attached seminary’s possible involvement in the girl’s abduction, forced conversion to Islam from Hinduism, and subsequent forced marriage.
After nine days of making a fruitless attempt to convince their area’s local authorities to focus on their plight, Anjali’s family came to Karachi and met the city police chief on Wednesday.
Her father insists that she was kidnapped from her home in broad daylight, and that hers was not a conversion by choice. He has with him Nadra and school documents that put her age at 12.
In the context of Anjali’s family, and many others like them, it is true that free choice stands compromised. It can only be conjectured how much pressure is felt by members of minority religions in a society where issues of faith are increasingly becoming the focus of violence.
Caste too can effectively become a stigma that holds entire communities in oppression. And, while it is as yet too early to pronounce upon Anjali’s case, it is a matter of record that the same complaint of forced conversion has been voiced before, that the caretakers of this particular shrine have also faced this accusation previously, and that an immediate and thorough investigation is needed.
That said, the case of 12-year-old Anjali should be very simple to resolve: forcing underage marriage has been criminalised in Sindh since last year, and the family have named the man to whom they claim the girl was married. For any government even halfway committed to the cause of the marginalised, the equation should not prove too difficult.
Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2014
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Comments (35) Closed
Nov 07, 2014 06:58am
For minorities in Pakistan, there are only three options: emigrate to other country, convert and live or perish. That is the reality and that is what the editorial should have said.
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Nov 07, 2014 08:11am
My god, she is only 12 years old! How can anyone do this to her and no one is taking this seriously. The society has truly lost its humanity.
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Nov 07, 2014 08:14am
A methodical genocide of minorities in the name of marriage - making these under-aged girls to forcibly get married to a muslim person and then simply wash off as if it was done with the wish of the girl. The mindset of these fanatics - is pretty clear. These religious fanatics want to rid the country of their minority population- and to stop them from marrying their own religion- these fanatics devised a devious way to kidnap them in day light in front of police and get them married after pushing them into convert to Muslim. Once married at age of 12, if the same girl is abandoned after 2-3 years, no body cares and no one touches her for life. She would become outcast and then she would remain a slave for life for her fault of having born in a minority religion within Pakistan. Only the Almighty can correct this anomaly. No one in your country can dare question and undo this warped mindset and pre-meditated fanatical actions of these elements.
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Nov 07, 2014 08:46am
Take a look at how India conducts minority wedding registrations. Hindus can get married in a day, but Christians and Muslims (even if any one is Christian or Muslim) need to compulsorily wait 30 days before their marriage is registered. For Christians and Muslims, their names are put up on a board and local communities scan it to ensure that nothing untoward ever happens. As a result, coerced marriages especially across communities as is done in Pakistan is a rarity in India.
I cannot imagine what life must be like for a Hindu girl who has been forcibly kidnapped and married as a second/third/fourth wife to an old Muslim man in Pakistan. Such a life is worse than death.
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Nov 07, 2014 08:52am
The wider society is complicit in these forced conversions. How can a 12 year old decide to convert, decide to marry, decide to leave home. The dead souls of the people involved will make their religion and society proud.
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Nov 07, 2014 09:19am
Islam has always treated non-muslims as sub-humans. But muslims keep lying through their teeth that islam treats non-muslims well and fair.
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Nov 07, 2014 09:35am
Talk is cheap. Keep talking. It doesn't matter what you say.
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Nov 07, 2014 09:37am
Fact 1: This is rampant in this age of information.
Fact 2: Pakistan's minorities realize that they can only attract negative attention unless they convert.
Fact 3: The numbers of the minorities in Pakistan have shrunk significantly.
Given this, why is it so hard for Pakistanis to realize that the ancestors of almost all Muslims in the subcontinent were converted because of far greater pressures following over 1000 years of "conversion by the sword"?
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Nov 07, 2014 09:38am
Seems the laws of Pakistan are so ineffective, that even the law enforcement (police), side with the criminals, thugs and mullahs who do the forceful conversions.
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Nov 07, 2014 09:50am
When there is an obvious problem, but the state dilly dallies, the message is clear - we don't want to or can't take action. That shows the inability of the state or makes the state an accomplice in the crime. It was Rinkle Kumari previously, now Anjali, tomorrow some one.
Please save this editorial for future use.
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Nov 07, 2014 09:53am
Had it been some other country and the girl Muslim, our Pakistan brethren would've had raised a hue and cry over this matter. Unfortunately it is their own country and the girl is forced to convert to their own religion. I remember earlier cases where my own friends persistently denied the claims of the girl's family and even the girl's earlier statements and kept quoting the girl on how she was converted without any coercion (with an invisible gun behind her head ofcourse). The way we ignore the plight of our own people is revolting! This is a case of forced conversion, underage marriage and rape of a minor and we should feel deeply ashamed.
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Nov 07, 2014 10:04am
Waking up now to what has been happening for 67 years with facts like minorities having fallen to just 3% of the population, cannot absolve anyone in Pakistan. When conscience has been dead this long, artificial respiration is just showmanship. Rewards from Allah are on the way.
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Nov 07, 2014 10:15am
@kuzzy truth is alw
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Nov 07, 2014 10:15am
@kuzzy truth is always bitter!!!!
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Nov 07, 2014 10:32am
A 12 year old had the sense, understanding and maturity to choose her husband and also understand Islam and accept it? Well done, Sirs. Very well done.
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Nov 07, 2014 11:00am
If you see the recent VICE documentary on ISIS, they meet the minister in charge of minorities and he proudly says that they have given 3 options to Christians (BTW, only Christians since apparently they are people of the book): 1. Convert to Islam, 2. Remain Christians and pay jiziya, or 3) Be killed.
And then Muslims say that they never convert anyone by force.
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Nov 07, 2014 11:45am
@Umesh Minorities are suffering. Some actions have to be taken against this madness. Look at India. The parsi community in Mumbai used to be large. In the last few decades their numbers has been decreasing considerably. In fact only old one are left. In Calcutta there was a large Chinese community. Now there are only a dozen people left. That tells you a sad story. Yes, there are a lot of Muslims living in India, but they live a separate life. Hindus and Muslims hardly have any contact with each other and their economic status is bad. It is reported that hindus do not buy anything from Muslim stores, other than meat because hindus do not bitter.
There is evil on both sides of the border. So no need to look down on Pakistan as if other countries are dolng fine.
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Nov 07, 2014 11:54am
"you are free to go to your places of worship, the state has nothing to do with your religion", no Kidding. The state wants to do nothing, esp if you are non muslim.
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Nov 07, 2014 12:05pm
What is new here? Has been happening in the sub-continent since the first Arabic invasions...
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Nov 07, 2014 12:17pm
@krishna prasad India should give unconditional and speedy settlement and facilitate livelihood for the Hindus of Pakistan. Given the lowly status of these people, Pakistan is nothing to lose and everything to gain in terms of jobs and houses, land etc these people leave behind. One cannot blame Pakistanis - it was created for Muslims of the subcontinent. They rightly feel entitled to their nation being religiously homogeneous.
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Nov 07, 2014 01:00pm
@Nidderacalling Yes - we check if the shop is owned by a muslim and then make our purchases - seriously who comes up with these facts.
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Nov 07, 2014 01:07pm
@Nidderacalling
Please stop writing concocted stories. Parsi community n India is the richest among minorities. Top Indian industrialists - Tatas are Parsis, so are many wealthy merchants. Next, One of my good friend is a Chinese Indian, who told me that Chinese community is West Bengal is strong. They are also present in Jharkhand and Bihar. It is estimated that 100,000 Chinese live in that area. Some of them went back to China after China prospered.
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Nov 07, 2014 01:28pm
Forcing minority to convert to Islam just like their forefathers were forced to convert to Islam.
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Nov 07, 2014 02:05pm
@Nidderacalling The discimination faced by Muslims in India is not even 1 % of difficulties faced by minorities in Pakistan. There is virtually ethnic cleansing going on in Pakistan of their minorities, as well as non sunnis, like shias Ahmediyas Hazaras,etc As far as India goes, Parsis are dwindling in numbers due to Factors like late marriages etc which is leading to their community dwindling in India. In fact even the Parsis will admit that they are definately not discriminated against in India. Economic boycott of Muslims in India generally does not exist. As far as Chinese are concerned, many of them have migrated through the years to European countries, as well as first world countries like Australia, Canada,etc.
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Nov 07, 2014 02:18pm
Islam is a religion of PEACE.
but some followers make sure non Muslims are in Peace albeit RIP.
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Nov 07, 2014 02:38pm
@NORI I read stories about Parsis in Economist. About China town in Calcutta was also written in Economist by an Indian. About Hindus not purchasing from Muslim shops is well known to all. Even those hindus living in west avoid Muslim stores here. Talking about Pakistanis problems give you reason to smile. Look in the mirror. An Australian friend took a taxi from the airport and told his Indian driver he knows a good restaurant in town called Moonsun. The driver told him, do not go there. It is not an Indian restaurant and belongs to a Pakistani.
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Nov 07, 2014 02:59pm
@Nidderacalling Just check the numbers in Pakistan, minorities reduced to 3% from around 30% at partition time. india all minorities population has incresed specialy muslims. there are muslim population in India than in Pakistan. There is no case in India where muslim is forcibly converted to hindiusm. In fact technically nobody from other relgion can convert to hinduism, you have to be born in hindu family. In muslim countries including Pakistan minorities are living under fear , oppression and under tremendous pressure to convert to majority religion.
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Nov 07, 2014 03:30pm
@Nidderacalling My brother from Pakistan, get some facts straight. Yes the parsi community in India has diminished but it is not because of forced conversions, rather it is because they have emigrated to Israel. Also some of the most richest Indians are infact Parsis(most notable the TATA group). The same is the case with Chinese community as they have gone back to their homeland in search for better economic prospects.
Also muslims in India are much better in comparison with most muslims in other parts of the world.Those who are not is mainly because of the resistance to the rapidly modernising country and its core beliefs, that is they promote conservatism. However, this is also changing rapidly. Also hindu - muslim relations in India are much better than what they are projected out to be in Pakistan. Also the literacy rate is rapidly climbing and soon all this things will become a thing of the past.
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Nov 07, 2014 04:30pm
Regarding Parsis, it is a well known fact that their community has decreased because many Parsis do not marry or they marry very late in life, thus their offspring are few. Also bear in mind that Parsis are generally highly educated and many have migrated to western communities. However there is still a very active Parsi community in Mumbai and Gujarat, not to mention that the Tata group in India is run by Parsis.
Regarding Jews, the Cochin Jews, Baghdadi Jews and Bene Israeli Jews and some Bnei Menashe Jews have migrated to Israel since the 50s and form an active Indo-Israeli community there. The Cochin Jews in particular are credited with agriculture in the hot deserts there and some of them are also in government.
Christians, the community I am from, are a vocal minority involved in civic affairs. When Pakistanis speak about Muslims in India and their so-called ill treatment at the hands of Hindus, why do they miss the Christians who form less than 3% of the population and get along well with other Indians?
Finally, I hope @Nidderacalling realizes that for ethnicity plays a much more important part than religion in most of India. A Kerala Hindu gets along very well with a Kerala Muslim or a Kerala Christian and have more in similar than the differences that drive them apart.
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Nov 07, 2014 05:37pm
@Paul
There is no provision in Pakistan to even register Hindu marriage. That makes it very difficult for Hindus especially a woman to prove their married status. It is a shame
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Nov 07, 2014 05:40pm
@Ahmed : are you living in a dream world. 67 years and nothing has changed. People who get good education migrate as they see the hopelessness and the hypocrisy in the society. People in Pakistan do not call a spade a spade so they start dreaming and they do nothing with the situation.
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Nov 07, 2014 05:51pm
@Ahmed
Main reason of reduction in Parsi population is their refusal to marry Hindu or a Muslim or Christian. The best example and proof of communal tolerance of Hindus (at large) and early Muslims population/rulers of India is the history of Parsi community in India. It is very surprising that several hundred years after they immigrated from Iran (Once again due to Muslim atrocities and conversion efforts) they could kept their gene pool unaffected. In most other countries of the this community would perhaps have disappeared by mere conversion to other religion or forced cohabitation / marriages among local population
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Nov 07, 2014 09:23pm
@Nidderacalling You are right but this news is about Pakistan where minority population has gone down from 27% in 1947 to 2% today.
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Nov 08, 2014 12:52am
@kdp Please do not blame Pakistan or Muslims that the Hindu marriages can not be registered in Pakistan. I remember that the family laws were passed in early 60's during Field Martial Ayub Khan's rule. Hindu punchait Mukhi (Chief) approached the legislature with the request to leave the Hindus out of the Family Laws equation. Hence, the Hindus do not have marriage, divorce or any other law governing the Hindus. Hindus follow tradition (not the laws) while Muslims are subject to Family Laws in Pakistan.
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Nov 08, 2014 01:06am
The caste system in Hindus in Pakistan is as fresh as it could be. Meghwar, Bheel, Kolhi, and Oad are a few lower Hindu castes living in Pakistan before and after partition. Upper class Hindus and Muslims do not treat them as human being. These people are hard workers. They rarely go to school. They are poor and dependent on rich landlord and businessmen. These people need support and recognition for their welfare. Upper class Hindus should treat them as humans and help them out for their well being.
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