The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has raised concerns about reports that Christian and Hindu girls in Pakistan are being forced to convert to Islam.
The commission’s 2026 annual report, which came out earlier this month, details concerns about the forced conversion of underage girls, often in relation to child marriage, citing an example of a 12-year-old Christian girl who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam and marry a 35-year-old man in Sindh Province last February.
It recommended that America renew Pakistan’s designation a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom violations—the same designation that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration gave Nigeria last year.
Why It Matters
The United Nations warned about this issue in April 2024, accusing Pakistan’s courts of validating forced conversions and child marriages.
Last May, Pakistan passed new laws targeting those who facilitated child marriages in Islamabad, and as an extension forced conversions, but the USCIRF is saying it is still an issue for Chrisian and Hindu girls across the country.
USCIRF’s call to keep Pakistan as a CPC under the International Religious Freedom Act carries potential policy consequences, including renewed sanctions and a reassessment of aspects of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.
What To Know
USCIRF’s report said minority girls in the country face abduction, forced conversion to Islam and coerced marriage in Punjab and Sindh provinces.
It cited, as examples, the report of the 12-year-old girl forced into marriage in Sindh Province in February, and a police report that alleged two armed men forcibly entered the home of a 15-year-old Hindu girl named Shahneela, in Matli, who was forced to convert to Islam last July, according to the Sindh Human Rights Commission.
Christian advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC) reported last year about a 16-year-old Christian Pakistani girl who was allegedly coerced into converting to Islam to marry a 28-year-old man in May 2025.
“He coerced me into putting my thumb impressions on some blank papers, which he then used to fabricate my false conversion to Islam and marriage to him,” she told the non-profit.
She was rescued three months later after she was allegedly sexually assaulted, drugged and forced into prostitution, among other abuses.
What Has Pakistan Done About Forced Conversions
In May 2025, Pakistan’s parliament passed the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Act, a law aimed at curbing child marriage in the capital. The legislation sets 18 as the minimum legal age of marriage and makes it a criminal offense to arrange, facilitate or coerce the marriage of a minor. Those involved—including parents, guardians or clerics—can face up to seven years in prison.
The bill was unanimously approved by the National Assembly and later signed into law by President Asif Ali Zardari, but it applies only to Islamabad, leaving other provinces vulnerable, and there is still strong religious sentiment against it, according to the USCIRF report.
“Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology strongly opposed the bill and declared it ‘un-Islamic’ for not conforming with Islamic injunctions,” the report says.
It also told how religious political parties in Pakistan, including the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and the coalition group Mili Yakjethi Council, “called for rallies protesting the law,” with leaders calling it “un-Islamic and unconstitutional.”
Pakistani officials have rejected the practice of forced conversions, with former Prime Minister Imran Khan calling them “un-Islamic and against the teachings of Islam.”
Some academics and religious figures in Pakistan have argued that conversions are mischaracterized, exaggerated or unsupported by credible evidence.
Several of them spoke at a roundtable on the topic at the Institute of Policy Studies in Islamabad last November, including Wajid Mansoor, a doctoral researcher at the University of Karachi, who said: “The public narrative developed through media does not represent the ground realities.”
Other leaders told how most conversions come after a long period of engagement and contemplation with someone, the Pakistani outlet Paradigm Shift reported.
USCIRF’s Recommendations for Donald Trump on Pakistan
- Keep Pakistan designated as a “country of particular concern” for serious religious-freedom violations.
- End the waiver that currently prevents penalties tied to that designation.
- Sanction Pakistani officials or agencies responsible for abuses, including asset freezes or U.S. visa bans.
- Negotiate a binding agreement with Pakistan requiring concrete steps to improve religious freedom.
- Pressure Pakistan to release people jailed for blasphemy or their religious beliefs.
- Pressure Pakistan to repeal blasphemy and anti-Ahmadiyya laws, or reform them while they remain in place.
- Pressure Pakistan to prosecute those responsible for mob violence, forced conversions, targeted killings, and other religion-based crimes.
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