Pakistan’s top constitutional court is about to take another look at a case that has stirred anger, grief, and fear well beyond one family. At the center is Maria Shahbaz, a 13-year-old Christian girl whose custody was previously sent back to the 30-year-old man accused of abducting her, forcing her to convert, and “marrying” her against her will. The new hearing gives the court a chance to confront what happened before and decide whether a child’s safety, age, and rights will finally matter.
The review petition is scheduled for July 24, and people watching the case see it as more than one isolated dispute. If the court changes course, it could send a much stronger message about child marriage and forced conversion in Pakistan. For families trying to protect their daughters, that would be a major shift.
Supporters of Maria’s family say the facts are painfully simple. A child was taken, pressured into abandoning her faith, and pushed into a relationship with an adult man. Instead of getting protection, she was sent back into danger after the earlier ruling.
Tehmina Arora, director of advocacy for Asia at Alliance Defending Freedom, put the stakes in blunt terms: This case is a crucial moment in the movement to protect young girls from the crisis of forced marriage in Pakistan. We hope that Pakistan’s highest court will soon agree to review Maria’s case and re-examine the evidence that was previously relied upon by the lower courts. Maria must be freed and safely returned to her family, where she will be safe from harm and able to practice her Christian faith.”
What makes the case so explosive is that it fits a pattern many human rights groups have been shouting about for years. In Pakistan, underage girls, often from Christian or other minority backgrounds, are abducted, converted under pressure, and then trapped in fake marriage paperwork that gets waved around as if it settles everything. Once that paper trail is in place, families can find themselves shut out while the abuse keeps rolling.
Maria’s story began in July 2025 when she was taken from her Christian home by Shehryar Ahmad. She was then forced to renounce her faith and “married” to him, even though she was still a minor. Reports say she suffered serious abuse after the abduction, which only deepened the outrage around the case.
Her fight moved into court in December 2025, and by February 2026 the outcome shocked many observers. Instead of returning her to her parents, the court gave custody back to the man accused of kidnapping her. Even more troubling, the court did not verify her age, despite Pakistani law requiring that basic fact to be established.
That matters because a child cannot legally consent to marriage or conversion under Pakistani law and international standards. Investigators had already determined that Maria was underage, and they also found the marriage certificate was forged. Still, the ruling stood, and that left her exposed to even more harm.
The outrage has not stayed inside Pakistan. The European Parliament recently referenced her case in a resolution that called for her return to her family and condemned the wider pattern of child abductions and forced marriages in the country. That kind of pressure matters because it shows the world is paying attention, and because silence only helps the abusers.
Maria is not alone, and that is what makes the issue so ugly. ADF says more than 1,000 underage girls are forced into conversion and marriage every year in Pakistan, with a familiar playbook of abduction, coercion, and forged documents. In too many cases, local authorities look the other way, and courts fail to enforce the Child Marriage Restraint Act, which sets the legal age for girls at 18.
Other girls have walked through the same fire. Reeha Saleem was 16 when she was abducted on her way home from school, taken to an unknown place, and forced into marriage after violence and abuse. She eventually escaped, but police initially refused to protect her because the fake marriage was still being treated as real, and it took a court annulment in 2024 to clear the trap.
Then there is Maira, who was 14 when she was forcibly married and converted. She fled her captor after brutal treatment and blackmail, but even then a high court first ordered her returned to him. Only later, with legal help, was she freed and reunited with her family, which is exactly the kind of outcome that should not require a miracle.
There have been some recent signs that Pakistan may be feeling the pressure to clean up this mess. Punjab, the country’s largest province, passed a new child marriage restraint law this year setting 18 as the minimum marriage age and telling courts to put children’s best interests first. That move came after repeated warnings from UN experts, European lawmakers, and British parliamentarians that the abuse of girls through forced conversion and marriage has become a serious human rights problem.
For Maria and others like her, the coming court hearing is not some abstract legal date on a calendar. It is a test of whether the system will keep protecting predators through paperwork or finally draw a hard line around children who have already been hurt enough. The whole country, and a lot of people outside it, will be watching closely.
