KARACHI: Pakistani police have rescued a missing Christian teenager who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam and marry a 44-year-old Muslim man, her family said on Tuesday after the case sparked street protests and outrage on social media.
A court in the city of Karachi ordered police to free the 13-year-old and arrest the man three weeks after she disappeared following appeals by women's rights and Christian organizations for authorities to act.
Police took the girl to a women's shelter in Karachi where she will stay until a court hearing on Thursday, said Jibran Nasir, her parent's lawyer. The man, a neighbor of the family, was due to appear in court on Wednesday.
Nasir said he hoped the girl's school and government records would be enough evidence to prove her age and "for the court to determine that she was a minor."
Sindh's High Court initially accepted statements from the girl that she was 18 -- the legal marriage age in the province, and had willingly converted to Islam and wed, sparking protests in Karachi by Christian groups and rights campaigners.
"My husband went to the police and reported her missing ... but they did nothing," the girl's mother Rita Raja said at Karachi's Holy Trinity Cathedral, where the family has been seeking refuge since her Oct. 13 disappearance.
"Two days later the police put a marriage certificate in my husband's hand stating she had married," Raja told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the cathedral, the seat of the Church of Pakistan.
Last week, a video of Raja crying and pleading to see her daughter outside the arrested man's house went viral on social media.
Campaigners say forced conversion and marriage of girls and woman from minority religions, including Hindus and Christians, is a growing problem in Muslim-majority Pakistan, with those from poor families and low castes largely targeted.
Last year, the alleged abduction and forced conversion of two Hindu sisters made headlines in Pakistan when a video of their marriages was shared widely on social media.
According to campaign group Girls Not Brides, 21% of girls in Pakistan are married before their 18th birthday. It has the sixth-highest number of child brides in the world at nearly two million, United Nations children's agency UNICEF data shows.
Pakistani police rescue Christian teen forced to convert, marry
https://arab.news/nbnys
Pakistani police rescue Christian teen forced to convert, marry
- A court in Karachi ordered police to free the 13-year-old and arrest the man three weeks after she disappeared
- The girl has now been taken to a women's shelter where she will stay until a court hearing on Thursday
In Peshawar, 76-year-old artist struggles to keep near-extinct Mughal wax art alive
- Craft involves intricate process using heated wax, oil, pigments, limestone to create textured, miniature artworks
- Riaz Ahmad, who has trained his son in wax art, says he hopes to train more people to preserve traditional craft
PESHAWAR: Riaz Ahmad, 76, stirs wax in a small plastic can with a long chopstick, takes it out on the palm of his left hand and adds natural color before drawing designs on a piece of cloth.
Surrounded by several such pieces of black cloth with unique art, Ahmad strives every passing day to keep the 500-year-old, Mughal-era wax art alive at his home near the Lahori Gate in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.
Ahmad comes from a well-known family of wax artists who were based in Shillong and Darjeeling in present-day India and had migrated to Peshawar during the 1947 partition of the sub-continent.
His work remains rooted in tradition, faithfully repeating patterns passed down through generations and winning Ahmad several awards both at home and abroad in recognition of his dedication.
“I have been making the same Mughal era designs that my forefathers used to make,” he told Arab News last week.
“I went to India in 2004, where I received the UNESCO Seal of Excellence [for Handicrafts] award... On 23 March, 2012, the Government of Pakistan awarded me the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz.”
The near-extinct traditional craft, which is believed to have originated in Central Asia and refined under the Mughal patronage, particularly in Peshawar, involves an intricate process using heated wax, linseed oil, powdered pigments, and limestone to create detailed, textured and often colorful miniature artworks by hand.
Ahmad learnt wax art from his father, Miran Bakhsh, nearly six decades ago.
“My parents used to do this work in Shillong and Darjeeling [in present-day India]. They had a shop there, and after the Partition, they migrated to Peshawar, Pakistan,” he said. “When they came here, they started doing the same work.”
A basic piece of his work costs around Rs3,000 ($10.7). A larger piece made on order can fetch between Rs5,000 and Rs15,000 ($17-$53), but such orders are rare.
“Wax and colors have become expensive. When I sell a piece for Rs3,000, around Rs1,000 goes into expenses, and Rs2,000 is my daily wage,” Ahmad said.
But the 76-year-old worries more about the future of the art form, which he insists cannot be learned quickly and requires “love and dedication.”
“Some people say they want to come, some from Karachi and some from Lahore, but it becomes difficult for me to go there or for them to come here,” he said.
Most wax artists in Peshawar have abandoned the art due to a lack of institutional support, according to Ahmad, who relies primarily on exhibitions to earn a living.
“The reason [for the decline of this art form] is that the government does not pay attention. They are caught in their own conflicts, and the culture is suffering,” Ahmad said.
“Other artists have left this art. Some are selling rice and some are driving rickshaws,” he added. “I have been doing this work inside my house. If there is any event, we go there and sell our art.”
Saad Bin Awais, a spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Culture and Tourism Authority (KPCTA), said the government has engaged artisans in several projects. He said some of these projects have come to an end while others are ongoing.
“Riaz Ahmad is the only wax artist in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the authority is serious about facilitating him,” he said, adding that the KPCTA facilitates Ahmad’s participation in exhibitions across the country to showcase his art.
“We have also been collecting data of artists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for an upcoming project to facilitate them in any way possible.”
Ahmad has trained his son, Fayyaz, in wax art who now practices it in Islamabad. The septuagenarian says he wishes to train more people to preserve the dying art form.
“I cannot leave this work,” he said. “I will continue this art even though my hands shake.”
