"Save Sindhi Hindu Daughters" and dinner with Tarek Fatah

On Sept 26th, 2019, I joined the Sindh Foundation for a symposium on the current situation of kidnappings and forced conversions of Hindu girls in the province of Sindh in Pakistan. Famous intellectual Pakistani-Canadian journalist Tarek Fatah was the keynote speaker. 

Every year, 1,000 young Sindhi Hindu girls between the ages of 12 and 28 are abducted, forcibly converted to Islam. Every month between 40 and 60 Sindhi girls are converted, averaging up to 2 girls a day. According to Pakistan's own human rights commission from January 2004 to May 2018 there were 7,430 cases of such abductions of Sindhi girls in Pakistan. The actual number is estimated to be much larger as most of these cases go unreported. 

Hindu girls, part of the biggest religious minority in Pakistan, are kidnapped, forcefully converted to Islam, and unwillingly married to Muslim men. The Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act of 2013 has not been enforced effectively and the state's response to forced marriage has been mixed. If not accomplices, police are insensitive and indifferent at best in most cases.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, families who try to report their daughters as missing are often ignored by the police and their First Information Report (FIR) is never submitted. Therefore, girls are left with their abductors, where they are often coerced into silence through threats or use of violence against them or their families.

Mian Mitho, a religious leader and politician, has participated in countless conversions of young Sindhi girls. He has close connections with both the army and Prime Minister, Imran Khan, which has allowed him to do so without receiving punishment. 

The next day, I was able to go out for dinner with Tarek Fatah and some friends. Fatah advocates for gay rights, a separation of religion and state, opposition to sharia law, and advocacy for a liberal and progressive Islam. He calls himself an Indian born in Pakistan, a Punjabi born in Islam.