From: Pakistan Christian Voice [mailto:christianvoice@earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 12:41 PM
To: Paksitan Christian Voice
Subject: rape of Christian women ignored

Thursday, July 4, 2002

RAPE OF CHRISTIAN GIRL IN PAKISTAN IGNORED BY POLICE

For immediate release
CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE

GUJRANWALA, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- The rape of a 16-year-old girl in Pakistan
has been ignored by police because of her religious beliefs. Shakeela
Siddique, a Christian from Fatewala village in the northeastern
Gujranwala district, was reportedly raped by an influential local Muslim
landlord in February 2002.

Traumatised and ashamed, Shakeela kept quiet about her ordeal. The
incident only came to light two months later when she realised she was
pregnant. In order to avoid social stigma, she was forced to have an
abortion (illegal in Pakistan) at the end of April and has suffered from
severe depression since the attack.

When her father, Siddique Masih, attempted to confront the alleged
rapist, he was badly beaten up. He told Christian Liberation Front, a
Pakistani human rights group: "My everything has been ruined as my
daughter is now a living corpse. No Christian in our village dares to
raise his voice against the Muslim landlords."

There are about 150 Muslim families and 50 Christian families living in
Fatewala and most of the Christians are poor peasants employed by
Muslims. In February 2001, Naira Nadia, a 14-year-old Christian girl,
was kidnapped and gang raped by a group of Muslim men.

This was apparently a reprisal for sharing her faith with her school
friends. The group forcibly converted her to Islam and sent her parents
a certificate of conversion. Despite evidence that Naira was underage
and therefore could not marry or convert to another faith without her
parents' consent, the presiding judge at Lahore High Court ruled in
favour of the abductor.

Naira has been missing for almost 17 months. Her family filed an appeal
to the Supreme Court in February this year, but they are under
increasing pressure from local Muslims to drop the case.

In May 2000, eight Christian girls were allegedly gang raped by six
Muslims. Their case went before the Ferozwala District and Sessions
Court in May 2002 and the judge ruled against the girls. It is widely
believed that he did so because of pressure from extremists who packed
the courtroom at every stage of the proceedings.

Minority women who are rape victims are often forcibly converted to
Islam and married to their rapists or sold into prostitution. According
to a ruling of the Lahore High Court, if a non-Muslim married woman
converts to Islam, her marriage is automatically dissolved. In some
cases, the rape, conversion, marriage and even subsequent divorce can
take place in a single evening.

In Pakistan, women who have been raped are at risk of being accused of
committing adultery, the penalty for which is death by stoning. To
successfully defend a charge of adultery, the burden falls on the victim
to prove rape, requiring four adult Muslim males to testify that they
have witnessed the act.

Pakistan has been a signatory to the UN Convention on the Elimination of
all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) since 1981. CSW is
calling on the government of Pakistan to bring its law and practice in
line with CEDAW. CSW is also urging the government of Pakistan to bring
to justice those responsible for these crimes and to hold independent
inquiries into those officials who seem to have acted impartially in
these cases.

Stuart Windsor, National Director of Christian Solidarity Worldwide,
said: "Shakeela's ordeal has had terrible consequences for her but the
injustice in the way her case is being dealt with by the authorities
adds to her suffering.

"Women from minority religions such as Christianity have virtually no
voice in the Pakistani criminal justice system and Shakeela's case is an
outrage about which the international community should not be silent."

----  -----
PLEASE PUBLICISE THE PLIGHT OF PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS.  PLEASE MOBILISE
PRAYER, FASTING, AND MISSIONARIES FOR PAKISTAN AND FOR OUR MINISTRY.
PRAY FOR GOD'S KINGDOM TO ADVANCE IN PAKISTAN WITH POWER.  PRAY FOR HIS
WORD AND TRUTH TO FLOOD THE MOSQUES AND HOMES IN PAKISTAN.  THE
GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN CANNOT CHANGE THE MENTALITY OF FANATIC MUSLIMS.
SINCE ONLY JESUS CHANGES HEARTS, YOUR PRAYER, FASTING, AND PRAYER
MOBILISATION ARE CRUCIAL FOR CHANGE TO TAKE PLACE IN THE TREATMENT OF
PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS.  PLEASE PRAY FOR A DIVINE MIRACLE TO IMPROVE THE
SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ECONOMICAL, AND EDUCATIONAL STATUS OF PAKISTANI
CHRISTIANS.  PLEASE ASK GOD TO CONTEND WITH THOSE WHO CONTEND WITH
PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS, AND FIGHT WITH THOSE WHO PERSECUTE PAKISTANI
CHRISTIANS.  THIS BATTLE CAN ONLY BE WON ON OUR KNEES, ON BEHALF OF
PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS.  PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS ARE AMONG THE POOREST OF THE
POOR, MOST OF WHOM CANNOT EVEN AFFORD A MEAL OF ONE SLICE OF BREAD, AND
ARE
CONSIDERED UNTOUCHABLES, IN PAKISTAN.  ONLY YOUR PRAYER AND FASTING CAN
PROVIDE THEM WITH DECENT AND RESPECTABLE JOBS, HOUSING, FOOD,
AUTOMOBILE, AND HUMAN DIGNITY. 

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET YOUR OWN FAMILY IN  PAKISTAN EVERY DAY.  PLEASE
BOLDLY PROCLAIM THE NEED FOR PRAYER AND FASTING FOR PAKISTAN.  YOUR
REWARD WILL COME FROM THE FATHER.  MOST IMPORTANTLY, PLEASE PRAY AND
FAST FOR THE SALVATION OF THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN 
- - Pakistan Christian Voice