Religion in Punjab, Pakistan

Religion in Punjab/Pakistan - Forced Marraiges and Forced Conversions of Young Women

There have been tragic cases (problems persist to this day), where usually young women from other religions (mostly Christians) were forced to convert from other religions to Islam. In Pakistan, this mostly applies to the minority religions Hinduism, Christianity (especially) and Sikhism. There are reports that people from these communities are often kidnapped, and forced to marry muslims as was the case with Farah Hatim in 2011. She has not been released to her family as of present time. People estimate that there are several hundred cases per year.

According to the census done in 2017, nearly 110.5 million people lived in Punjab. About 108 million said they were Muslims. Most of these are Sunni, of the Hanafi school. A minority are Shi'a. The largest non-Muslim minority are Christians, with about 2.1 million people. Most Pakistani Christians live in Punjab. Lahore and Faisalabad have more Christian population than any other city in Punjab. Most Punjabi Christians are converts from the Hindu Churas and Mazhabi Sikh caste to Christianity during the British Raj in colonial India. Many Christians in Punjab are persecuted. The high-profile Asia Bibi blasphemy case was a famous example of this. Bibi was arrested in Punjab in 2009 under the blasphemy law in Pakistan, found guilty and sentenced to execution. After ten years in prison, and an international campaign, she was acquitted and she and her family moved to Canada, then on to France. The governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was assassinated for his defence of Bibi.