The renowned nonprofit organization Family Research Council urged President Joe Biden to act on the rampant cases of Christian girls being abducted for marriage and slavery in Pakistan through diplomatic talks and "congressional resolution."
A report released by the Family Research Council on Thursday last week urged Biden to "battle" the forced "marriages" Pakistani girls and women face from Islamic abductors, WND reported.
Last June, Christian Leaders called for concrete actions against forced conversions and marriages done on Christian girls after they have been abducted by Muslim men.
Pakistan ranks fourth in the world for having the most abduction cases of this sort. Yet the Pakistani government seems unable to do anything about it despite their laws criminalizing such human rights violations such as discriminating against minority religious groups in the country, such as Christians.
The FRC report, "Combating Forced Marriage Of Young Women In Pakistan," presented the "phenomenon" of forced marriages in Pakistan that "hundreds of Christian and Hindu girls" face each year.
"Every year, hundreds of Christian and Hindu girls are forced to convert to Islam and marry their Muslim abductors, facing repeated rape, physical violence, and domestic servitude. When the girls' parents seek help from the authorities, Pakistani courts often side with the perpetrators," the FRC said.
The 17-page report stressed that "culture" and the lack of willingness of Pakistani leaders to address the issue have led this phenomenon to become widespread in the country. As such, FRC identified three particular steps the Biden Administration can undertake to put an end to this.
"Pakistan's culture of religious discrimination and the government's inability to secure religious freedom endangers its citizens-and young girls often pay the highest price. This issue is worthy of attention from American diplomats and foreign policymakers, and it should become a focus of U.S. human rights diplomacy in South Asia," the FRC stressed.
"Through the use of diplomatic relations, congressional resolutions, and targeted sanctions, the U.S. must call Pakistan to a higher standard of human rights conditions," it added.
The report also cited other means the American government could pressure the Pakistani government into acting on these human rights violations.
"The U.S. government should identify Pakistani government agencies and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom to sanction. The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, utilizing Executive Order 13818, allows the president to block or revoke U.S. visas and to block all U.S.-based property of foreign persons engaged in serious human rights violations," the report said.
"(The) International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 also provides for visa sanctions against foreign individuals accused of religious freedom violations," it added.
In the report, the FRC identified several cases of Christian girls who experienced abduction and forced marriages. One of them was Farah Shaheen, a 12-year-old who was abducted by three men in June 2020 from her very own home.
Shaheen's parents reported the incident to the police who repeatedly refused to file the report. It took months and much pleading from the parents before the police filed it, but the investigation on it was similarly delayed thereafter.
Shaheen was in abduction for five months. She suffered great horrors from her abductor, being "raped, forcefully converted to Islam, and married to her abductor" while spending "her days either chained inside to clean the house or outside to care for the animals." She was also "frequently beaten and raped by her abuser and his landlords."
Shaheen was taken by the police from the abductor's home and kept in a safe house. She and her abductor faced each other in court a month after, and the forced marriage was nullified "not because of the kidnapping and her status as a minor, but because her abuser had misfiled the marriage certificate."
