What if your daughter went to school one morning and never came home? Then, when you finally found her, a judge told you that you couldn’t even speak to her for ten minutes?
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That’s not a hypothetical. That’s what’s happening right now to the family of Neha, an 18-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan.
Neha’s family works in a brick kiln, which is part of a system of generational debt slavery that, according to Joel Veldkamp of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), disproportionately traps Pakistani Christians. Though Christians represent only about 2% of Pakistan’s population, they make up roughly 60% of the country’s brick kiln workforce.
After her parents had scraped together enough money, Neha was enrolled in a local sewing course. It was a small but hopeful step toward a better future. She only worked there for a short time before one day, she went off to work and didn’t come back.
“No warning, no communication, nothing,” Veldkamp told CBN. “She just vanishes.”
When her family went to the police, they were met with indifference. CSI stepped in and secured a lawyer, who filed a habeas petition, and that’s when the picture became even more disturbing. Neha had been found in an Islamic school in Lahore. She had been legally converted to Islam just two days after she disappeared.
The conversion documents claimed Neha had done her own “research” and freely chosen to change her religion. One problem: Neha is illiterate.
The case made it to court. Neha was brought to the courthouse, dressed in Islamic clothing from head to toe. Her family was in the same building. The judge ruled summarily against them. When they begged for just ten minutes to speak with their daughter, the judge said no.
In an interview on CBN’s Quick Start Podcast, Veldkamp says the bias in these courts runs deep. “A lot of these judges simply are Muslim supremacists,” he said. “They think Christians are dirty. They think all Christians should convert to Islam, willingly or otherwise.” He also noted that lawyers and judges who have ruled in favor of Christians have been murdered by extremist groups, a terror that shapes every decision made in these courtrooms.
And Neha’s case is far from unique. Forced conversions like this happen to more than 1,000 Christian and Hindu women in Pakistan every year.
CSI is now pushing for international attention on Neha’s case, working with U.S. and U.K. government contacts, including Lord David Alton of the House of Lords, who has written letters on her behalf. They’re also exploring ways to get members of Congress involved.
“We’re trying to embarrass the Pakistani government into doing the right thing,” Veldkamp said.
For those who want to help, learn more at csi-usa.org. The organization supports families financially through the court process, provides legal assistance for Christians facing blasphemy charges, and works to get families out of the brick kiln system altogether.
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