Pakistan (MNN) — Every year, hundreds of Pakistani women and children get kidnapped and forced into marriage by Muslim men.
Typically, these women come from religious minorities in the country, such as Christianity or Hinduism. Vincent Michael of FMI says, “You can imagine putting yourself in that situation, how horrific that would be. And the conversions are coercive; they’re being forced to convert to Islam. So many of them are living out their Christian faith secretly behind closed doors, and I just can’t imagine the amount of faith that would take. Pray for those women.”
To make things worse, law enforcement often allows this behavior to continue. In fact, they often persecute religious minorities themselves. Michael says, “In certain areas down near Karachi, especially in the Sindh province, I would say Hindus are a bit more targeted. It is a religious minority thing in general. But Christians are certainly vulnerable.”
Ask God to comfort and strengthen the Christian women and children who have been abducted. “God is moving powerfully in the women in Pakistan, and I can’t stress that enough. The harder that the enemy presses, the more that God’s spirit moves just seems to be pleased to move when there’s distress. The theology of gender in the conservative Islamic world is not a friendly place for women.”
Header photo courtesy of FMI.
