An 18-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan is now at the center of a wrenching court battle after being abducted, taken from her family, and forced into Islam. Her relatives went to court hoping to bring her home, but the judge refused, deepening fears about how often minority girls disappear into a system that seems built to look the other way.
Neha Faqir was taken on March 24 from the sewing center where she worked, and her parents quickly reported her missing. Once they learned she had been kidnapped, they pushed for a hearing at the Lahore High Court, asking for the chance to have their daughter returned to them.
When the family finally saw her again, it was after more than two months, and the scene was heartbreaking. Christian Solidarity International said Neha appeared in black robes, escorted by a Muslim woman and several religious representatives, and her mother and sister were not allowed to speak freely with her.
The court would not let her relatives have a private conversation with her inside the courthouse. That detail matters because in cases like this, families often say the missing piece is not just proof of where the girl is, but whether she can speak without pressure, fear, or someone standing over her shoulder.
The petition to return Neha home was dismissed, leaving her family stunned and desperate. They may still appeal, but the road ahead is uncertain, and that uncertainty is part of what makes these cases so painful for parents who have already been through the shock of an abduction.
Christian Solidarity International has stepped in to support the family and has been pushing the story into the international spotlight. The group argues that Neha’s case is not some isolated tragedy, but part of a much wider pattern involving girls from religious minority communities in Pakistan.
That pattern has a name, and it is ugly: abduction, forced marriage, and forced conversion. CSI says Hindu and Christian girls have been targeted this way for years, and too often the people responsible face little or no punishment.
Joel Veldkamp, CSI’s director for public advocacy, raised Neha’s case during a hearing in the British Parliament on June 16. He said, “In this case,” Veldkamp said, “the miscarriage of justice is so brazen that our partners in Pakistan have asked us to bring Neha’s case to the attention of the international community.”
The parliamentary event focused on “Grooming, coerced marriage and conversion of minority women: Global incidence and evidence,” and it put a harsh spotlight on how similar cases keep surfacing. When a problem is described that directly, it becomes harder for governments and institutions to shrug and call it complicated.
CSI says Neha’s case “fits a systematic pattern of abduction targeting women and girls from religious minority communities in Muslim-majority Pakistan.” That line hits hard because it points to something bigger than one courtroom decision, namely a repeated failure to protect vulnerable girls before they are taken and after they are taken.
A 2021 BBC report said nearly 1,000 girls from religious minorities are abducted each year in Pakistan. Numbers like that turn a single case into a national emergency, especially when families keep saying the same thing: the kidnapping happens fast, the pressure is intense, and the justice that should follow rarely arrives in time.
