Bishop Samson Shkardin © ACN
sauce: ACN
Pakistan’s Catholic Church has praised amendments to the Christian Marriage Law that will raise the legal age of marriage to 18, which could help reduce the number of abductions and forced marriages of Christian girls.
The Christian Marriage (Amendment) Act, 2024, which applies to Christians in the Islamabad Capital Territory, amends the original 1872 law that set the legal marriage age at 16 for boys and 13 for girls.
Bishop Samson Shukardin, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan (CBCP), said that although the law is limited in geographic scope, it could be a first step to ending the abduction and forced conversion of girls from minority faiths, including Christians.
“When girls are abducted, they are often taken to an area where the marriageable age is 16, so they are easily married off,” Bishop Shkardin told church aid group Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). “Or sometimes Muslims say they are already of marriageable age, but we Christians say they are still children and should never be married before 18.”
He added: “This will give some peace of mind. Not complete peace of mind, but some peace of mind. At least in these circumstances there is a basis to file legal action against these people who have abducted girls under the age of 18 and married them off.”
The bishop said child abduction, forced conversion and marriage were serious problems in Pakistan that the authorities had not yet adequately addressed.
“We have raised our voices many times but so far very little has been done,” he said.
In a joint statement, the CBCP and the National (Catholic) Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) said: “We sincerely thank the entire Parliament for unanimously passing this bill. This law will play a vital role in protecting young minor girls from forced religious conversion and child marriage. We hope that the government will take further steps to criminalise forced religious conversion.”
The statement further said church leaders want to raise the marriage age to 18 for all Pakistanis, regardless of their religion or place of residence.
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